


Who the Hell Put Gavin in the Ceiling?

by can_u_count_bees



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android Gavin Reed, Android Gore (Detroit: Become Human), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anti-Android Sentiments (Detroit: Become Human), Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Twins, CyberLife (Detroit: Become Human), Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gavin Reed Backstory, Gavin Reed Needs a Hug, Gavin Reed Not Being an Asshole, Heavy Angst, Hurt Gavin Reed, Implied/Referenced Abuse, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, M/M, Not Beta Read, Oops, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Upgraded Connor | RK900, Post-Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Soft Gavin Reed, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed, Tags Contain Spoilers, Time Skips, Trauma, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, cyberlife really do be the antagonists doh, no beta we die like men, there is a lot of going back and forth between dates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 40,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25666204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/can_u_count_bees/pseuds/can_u_count_bees
Summary: [4:28 a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Gavin Reedhey i’m leaving town for a couple days for a family emergency, can you go pick up Flip and Ollie from my apartment and have them stay with you until i get back?[4:29 a.m.] SENT MESSAGE: YouOf course. I will pick them up before the day shift. Have you notified Captain Fowler?[4:29 a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Gavin Reedno, do you think you could do that for me, i’m gonna be on the road for a bit.[4:29 a.m.] SENT MESSAGE: YouIt will be no problem. May I ask what the family emergency details are?[4:30 a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Gavin Reedi’ll tell you when i’m back, junkyardand nines?[4:30 a.m.] SENT MESSAGE: YouYes?[4:31 a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Gavin Reedyou are the best partner i’ve ever had. thanks for everything.[4:31 a.m.] SENT MESSAGE: YouWhile I appreciate the praise, I am worried this emergency is more than you let on.[4:34 a.m.]Are you okay?[4:40 a.m.]Gavin?ERROR 404: THIS NUMBER IS NO LONGER IN USE
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 129
Kudos: 324





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> yes, the title is a play off of the 'who the hell put the muffins in the freezer' meme. it will make sense soon

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

[4:28 a.m.] _MESSAGE FROM: Gavin Reed_

hey i’m leaving town for a couple days for a family emergency, can you go pick up Flip and Ollie from my apartment and have them stay with you until i get back?

_You :SENT MESSAGE_ [4:29 a.m.]

Of course. I will pick them up before the day shift. Have you notified Captain Fowler?

[4:29 a.m.] _MESSAGE FROM: Gavin Reed_

no, do you think you could do that for me, i’m gonna be on the road for a bit.

_You :SENT MESSAGE_ [4:29 a.m.]

It will be no problem. May I ask what the family emergency details are?

[4:30 a.m.] _MESSAGE FROM: Gavin Reed_

i’ll tell you when i’m back, junkyard

and nines?

_You :SENT MESSAGE_ [4:30 a.m.]

Yes?

[4:31 a.m.] _MESSAGE FROM: Gavin Reed_

you are the best partner i’ve ever had. thanks for everything.

_You :SENT MESSAGE_ [4:31 a.m.]

While I appreciate the praise, I am worried this emergency is more than you let on.

[4:34 a.m.]

Are you okay?

[4:40 a.m.]

Gavin?

_ERROR 404: THIS NUMBER IS NO LONGER IN USE_

**//////**

**Today, March 1st, 2039**

“And your partner I’ve assigned to you is Detective Gavin Reed, who seems to be fashionably late today,” Captain Fowler sighed, looking past Nines from where he sat at his desk out into the bullpen, where an empty terminal sat. It was clean, with only a couple of photo frames and a cup of pens and pencils on its surface. 

“Now, I need to give you a forewarning about him. He’s not exactly the most… _Tolerable_ person out here,” the Captain grimaced, as if remembering unpleasant memories. “I would’ve assigned you to someone else, but there are cases piling up and, well, even though Reed’s attitude is piss poor and teamwork skills are limited… He’s one of the best detectives we have here aside from Lieutenant Anderson and Detective Connor.”

“I understand, sir. I assure you that Detective Reed’s supposed hostility will not impede work,” Nines promised. “Nevertheless, I look forward to meeting him when he arrives.”

“Word of advice: Let him settle in for the first 10 minutes before introducing yourself. He might not get so agitated, then,” the Captain advised, standing up from his chair and leaning over his desk to extend a hand out. “Welcome to the Detroit Central Police Department.”

Nines took his hand, shaking it firmly before folding his hands behind his back, a small smile forming on his lips, the Captain nodding and waving him out of his office as he sat back down.

Nines exited the office and returned to Hank’s desk where Connor was sitting, spinning around in the chair with boredom. He stopped short when he saw Nines approaching, a big smile on his face as he stood up. 

“Everything go well?”

“Yes, I’ve been assigned to Detective Gavin Reed for the time being,” He felt a few new pairs of eyes land on him after he said this, mainly from those nearby. They all expressed shock or pity, which puzzled Nines as he was just stating who he would be working with. 

Even Connor gave him a worried look. “Are you sure that’s what the Captain said?”

“Of course, why would it not be? And why are there people looking at me like I’m in trouble?”

Connor looked around and people quickly looked away, pretending to have not been eavesdropping. “That’s because you might be. Here, let’s go to the break room with Hank. He would probably like to know this new development.”

Connor herded Nines out of the bullpen, conversations about Nines and the Detective he’s never met already started even when he wasn’t out of clear earshot.


	2. Subverting Expectations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all wtf i come here and its already over 100 hits?? you guys are amazing and i will try to work out a working schedule so i can pay attention to both of my works and not overwork myself! enjoy!

**Today, March 1st, 2039**

**12:56 p.m.**

“Jeffery is fucking senile if he thinks pairing Nines with the biggest asshole in this city is an even _remotely_ good idea,” Hank spat, looking towards Captain Fowler’s office with anger. “I don’t care how good his solved to unsolved case ratio is, he’s a man-child with less manners than me and the worst temper I’ve ever come across!”

“I’m inclined to agree to an extent, Lieutenant. Do you think you could sway Captain Fowler’s decision at all?” Connor asked, sitting on the counter of the break room across from Hank, who was leaning against a table holding a cup of coffee.

Nines was standing a few steps away, observing the bullpen as officers, both android and human alike, milled about their days. He was cataloguing all of their faces and names so future interactions would be smooth. The infamous Detective had still not yet arrived, which Nines hoped was not a daily occurrence. He liked schedules, and would want to stick to one whenever possible.

After deviating, it was hard to adjust to all the freedom of being unrestrained from his initial coding, so when his brother, Connor, introduced to him the art of scheduling, everything felt more controlled. Hank joked about Nines possibly being OCD, but after both Nines and Connor explained to him in detail how he didn’t, Hank never brought it up again. 

His schedule for today was; meet with Captain Fowler, meet assigned partner, begin working. And currently only one of those objectives has been completed, and with every ticking minute that passes by, Nines anticipation for completing the next goals grew. 

It was also not helping that everyone around him seemed to be stealing glances at him, gossiping about the new partnership and potential scenarios that would happen. He stopped listening when some took more violent turns, instead focusing on Connor and Hank’s conversation taking place behind him.

“He's about as stubborn as the bastard we’re talking about, so it might not even be worth the breath,” Hank grumbled, taking a sip of his coffee.

“I just worry that Nines will be scared off by the Detective,” Connor sighed, pulling out a quarter from his pocket and beginning to toss it back and forth between his fingers. 

“And I just worry ye have little faith in Gavin,” a new female voice retorted.

Nines looked over his shoulder to see a short woman in about her mid-30s, with pulled back black hair and dark eyes. Officer Tina Chen, he recalled. She had entered the room a few moments prior, digging around in the fridge for something.

“Tina, I think ye have too much faith in Reed,” Hank shot back, rolling his eyes at Tina’s curious choice of words.

“He’s not _that_ bad, you guys just aren’t trying to see past the outer shell of him,” Tina retrieved a gallon of milk from the fridge setting in on the counter beside Connor before starting to make her own coffee. 

“There _is_ nothing else to look at! He’s an A-grade smartass who doesn’t respect authority and makes everyone around him miserable.”

“You just described most if not all of our entire generation there, Hank. And he’s a good guy, just a bit… Hard to read most of the time.”

“Uh-huh,” Hank scoffed. “Like it was so hard to read that he hates androids.”

“He’s better now!” Tina defended, turning around to face Hank. She almost knocked her cup off the counter had Connor had been so quick to grab it. “Seriously, the only reason he’s a bitch to Connor is cause he got his ass kicked by him a couple months ago. I would still be bitchy too, it’s called being fucking human and holding grudges, Anderson!”

As they argued back and forth, with Connor ready to step-in in case they got too heated, Nines saw a new face enter in the bullpen.

He was shorter than Nines, but what lacked in height made up in muscle mass as evidenced by the shirt that hugged his torso. A leather bomber jacket was pulled over the shirt, hiding his shoulders and arms but that didn’t stop Nines’ mind from impulsively recreating the defined biceps and strong arms that undoubtedly laid underneath. His hair was slightly done, though it looked messy rather than neatly finished. He also wore dark aviator sunglasses, which showed the reflection of the room as he walked, cutting across some desks before reaching the familiar one Fowler had looked at in their meeting.

He also had a backpack slung over his shoulder, which he kicked underneath his desk as he sat down, pulling out his phone from his jean pocket and beginning to go through it. That’s when Nines also took sign of the wireless earbuds he had in, probably listening to music. Nines almost wanted to hack into to see what he was listening to. 

What would someone like him listen to? Why did it feel like his CPU was malfunctioning? He ran diagnostics but nothing came back that was alarming. 

He couldn’t quite clearly see his face, but from what he could see, it was making him feel… Odd. Not odd as in bad, rather in a pleasant way. Admiration, possibly. The man was, after all, aesthetically pleasing as some would say. 

Definitely not what he had been expecting after all the negativity that surrounded Detective Reed’s characterization. 

It was now that the staring and hushed whispers were directed towards the detective, who didn’t show any signs of caring, mindlessly scrolling on his phone as he bounced his leg up and down. Obviously, he was accustomed to this. Or he simply hadn’t noticed. Either way, Nines could not distinguish any sort of hostile or antagonistic mannerisms as of the moment. 

His directory was telling him to go introduce himself, but he felt held in place. He wanted this to go over smoothly, but according to everyone in the office, it would result in multiple different terrible outcomes, each one not what Nines wanted to start off with. Especially the ones in which the Detective is theorized to become a physical threat. 

But, Nines was built with self-defense programs, so neutralizing the situation would not be difficult. 

He felt a hand on his arm, gently shaking him out of his trance. He looked over to see Tina, coffee cup in hand and a friendly smile on her face.

“Don’t listen to the boomer or the gossips here, Gav’s not that bad once you get to know him. He’s just a bit closed-off is all, not a very big people-person,” She assured Nines, taking a few steps away from him and into the bullpen. “C’mon, I’ll introduce you.”

Nines’ LED spun golden one last time before returning to blue, returning a thankful grin as he began to follow behind Tina, hands folded behind his back. He heard Hank protest, but was quieted by Connor before he was dragged back into the break room to avoid the inevitable.

His neutral expression didn’t show it, but he was definitely nervous as people around them began to notice that they were about to meet.

It was only 30 short-lived steps before both Tina and him were by Detective Reed’s desk. He was still deep into his phone and they could hear his music, so he had probably not heard them approaching. Nines could hear what sounded like hip-hop or rap, he wasn’t sure. It definitely wasn’t anything Hank or Connor listened to. 

With zero hesitation, Tina snatched Gavin’s phone from his grasp, giggling as he groaned in annoyance. 

“Tina, you bitch. What if I had been doing something super top-secret that held the fate of the world in the balance?” Gavin growled, but it had no malice, and sounded light-hearted more than anything.

Promising.

He looked up at Tina before his eyes quickly registered Nines’ presence. He took off his sunglasses to reveal a beautiful set of green eyes that almost made Nines’ metaphorical stomach flip. He was a lot more handsome up close. 

Gavin blinked quite a few times as his brain was computing Nines’ existence, very clearly noticing it was not Connor as he was sometimes mistaken for. Nines was patient and didn’t want to say anything just yet. He didn’t want to ruin it.

“Gav, this is Nines, Connor’s brother,” Tina said, not allowing there to be an awkward silence. “Nines, Detective Gavin Reed, but everybody calls him ass-.”

“Watch it Tina, that cup of coffee looks hot still,” Gavin interrupted warningly, standing up from his chair. His analyzing eyes canvassed Nines’ body before coming back up to meet Nines’ teal eyes, something so foreignly familiar behind them that Nines couldn’t distinguish. It only made him feel more infatuated with the Detective.

Another pause, then:

“Are you just as annoying as your brother or are you mute, scrap?” The question itself wasn’t hostile, maybe a little crude but there was no malice, no venom packed behind his words. It took Nines by surprise, but it gave him hope that Tina was right. 

Nines grinned. “I like to think I'm a rather pleasant company.” Then he took a leap of faith. “Are you as angry as everyone says?”

The taken aback look on his face made Nines’ feel uneasy, but it was quickly quelled when he grinned back, the look being replaced with amusement as he chuckled and looked away. 

“I like to think I’m a dickhead to people who deserve it,” Gavin responded, playfully mocking Nines’ calm and pleasant tone he had taken. Tina giggled, and Nines’ smiled warmly at the Detective, extending a hand to him.

“Oh, no,” He held up his hands and slightly backed away from Nines’ invitation to shake. “I don’t do touching, if it’s not a problem. Nothing against you, just don’t really like physical contact.”

Nines retracted his hand quickly, nodding in understanding. “It is alright.”

Gavin lowered his arms, looking back to Tina. “So, why else introduce me to this nerd other than to showcase that not all RKs are as pretentious as they’re made out to be?”

Nines would take that as a compliment.

“I’ve been assigned to be your partner for the time being,” Nines answered for Tina, almost stuttering over his next sentence as he made eye contact with Gavin again. “Captain Fowler says you’re one of the best detectives in this precinct. I look forward to working with you, Detective Reed.”

Gavin had a small look of astonishment, eyeing Fowler’s office before returning to Nines. He looked at him from top to bottom again, Nines biting the inside of his cheek as he waited for a response. He hoped he hadn’t laid it on too thick.

“... Ah fuck it. Look forward to working with you too, plastic.”

His words shouldn’t have made his thirium pump stutter like it did. 

**//////**

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

**8:23 a.m.**

Nines stared at the TV that was in the break room in horror, LED swirling a deep scarlet. Tina and Chris Miller, along with a few other officers, had crowded around the flat screen as the news droned on with the segment that had caught everyone’s attention immediately.

“-According to Cyberlife, suspect Gavin Reed is at large after a confrontation and chase through Detroit's lower ward, having evaded capture and is thought to be armed and extremely dangerous. He is currently wanted for the illegal manufacturing of android biocomponents and is believed to be connected to Zlatko, an infamous android black market seller who also performed twisted experiments on some androids who came into his care. If you have any information as to his whereabouts or possible ways to contact him, please call the number on screen-.”

Nines stared at the picture of Gavin that flashed on screen, remembering their last conversation. He had gone to his apartment and everything look normal there. His cats were fed and everything was in order. So what happened?

Nothing sat right here, but Nines’ emotions were overriding his sense of logic. 

Gavin wouldn’t do this. He couldn’t.

But how well did Nines really know Gavin?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tmw you immediately get a crush on partner
> 
> if you don't already, my instagram is can.u.count.bees.the.sequel and my tiktok is can.u.count.bees


	3. Crushed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY SO: i've devised a new schedule. this book will post every other day, and so will my other fic, 'Gavin Gets a Cat in the End'. That way, a new chapter comes out every night, just for two different series.

**Today, April 24th, 2039**

**6:17 p.m.**

It was quite a shock to the entire precinct how _well_ Gavin and Nines hit it off. Nines, on the other hand, couldn’t feel better about it.

Almost two full months in working together, and they rarely even so much as snapped at the other, Nines only able to recall a few clear memories of the Detective being outright mean or rude towards him. It was always pleasant or teasing conversation, or talking about work, which got boring at times whenever there weren’t any breakthroughs or conclusive evidence. 

What wasn’t boring, however, was studying Gavin whenever he could. Not in a creepy-stalker way, but more in a curious sense, as Gavin was quite the peculiar character.

He was quick to accept the fact that Gavin was a _brilliant_ detective. On their first homicide case, while examining the body, Gavin had found a broken off piece of jewelry clenched in the victim’s hand. He studied it before recognizing it to be a part of the eye-witness’s necklace, which they were holding for ‘comfort’ instead of wearing. Nines probably would’ve made the connection too if he had been with Gavin instead of inspecting the house, but it was still amazing how a human could remember such fine details and connect the dots so quickly. Since then, they were solving cases left and right, quickly becoming rivals to Lieutenant Anderson and Connor in solved cases.

His general intelligence was… One of his attractive qualities, to say the least.

His emotional intelligence was to be debated, however. Nines couldn’t count how many times he had to get in between Gavin and someone else in order to prevent a bloodbath of fists and broken noses. His anger-management was quite poor with everyone around him, routinely getting into shouting matches with the Lieutenant or getting a disciplinary from Fowler for his attitude towards the officers Gavin worked with, something Nines was rarely if ever on the receiving end of. And for the few times Nines joined him and Tina out for drinks, he was quite baffled on how Gavin’s mood could switch on the dime. It only happened whenever there was unwanted attention from persistent strangers, but when it did it felt like he was a completely different person. 

One time, when a stranger was attempting, emphasis on _attempt_ as Nines was not easily intimidated _,_ to accost Nines for sexual favors, Gavin appeared out of nowhere and clocked the person without hesitation, the motion fluid and calculated. Gone was the laid-back and carefree Gavin Nines had previously been hanging out with; instead, he was replaced by someone with burning hatred in their eyes, a deep-seated anger controlling their moves and choices. It was the moment that Nines knew there was something more to Gavin than what he let on.

They were promptly thrown out of the bar after Gavin did a bit more damage to the person’s genitals, and neither Tina nor Nines questioned the morality of the situation as Gavin cursed and kicked empty cans down the sidewalk to empty the rest of his anger onto. For someone who asked to not be touched, he sure was alright with it if it was violence-related.

Nines had kept in mind the Detective’s ‘no touching’ rule since their first interaction. It never quite occurred to ask him why he was against it, but then again it was none of his business. So he was respectful to give him enough distance or careful when passing him in the office, and he knew Gavin had noticed eventually. He would flash small grins at Nines whenever they walked by each other, or he’d catch him looking Nines’ way when they were listening to a debrief for a case. It felt quite special to Nines, as he never saw Gavin doing that with anyone else, not even with Tina. It would usually make his thirium pump go a little faster than normal.

It was quite apparent to Nines that he was developing a small fascination, or what others call a ‘crush’, on Gavin. _‘And what was there not to admire?’_ He would ask himself from time to time.

There was a lot, at least to Nines. 

He never told anyone, of course. Connor would probably end up letting it slip out in conversation, Hank would definitely try to convince Nines to see reason, and Tina was… Well Tina would probably attempt to set them up. But he didn’t want any of that. He very much liked the way their friendship was developing over the course of the weeks, and would rather not ruin it. He genuinely liked Gavin, was interested in him in more ways than romantically. Nines wanted to keep him as a friend for as long as he could. So, he stored away his feelings. They were still very much there, but he kept them in check, keeping them from letting him make dumb decisions and mistakes that could be detrimental to the stability of their partnership.

That never stopped the yearning he felt every time they parted ways after work; the want to ask him to go out for drinks even though Nines couldn’t consume any, the want to be around him for just a minute longer. 

It was a feeling that always dampened his days a bit, no matter how great they had been.

**//////**

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

**4:40 a.m.**

Tears ran down thirium splattered cheeks and onto a snapped in half phone, thin wires trailing out from the glass-like material and thick cracks only deepening as his grip tightened, hands shaking in what he couldn’t discern from fear or anguish. 

He didn’t have much time to mourn, as he heard echoing shouts from a few alleys away and heavy footsteps coming his way. He would not be able to stay hidden much longer, as thirium was pooling beneath his feet and out into the open. 

He got into a standing crouch, processing his options of escape from behind the garbage bins he wiggled himself into. Fighting was not an option, he had already been shot three times and the last one had definitely clipped an important bio-component that he would need to either fix or replace soon or else he would involuntarily shutdown. Running was only a 47% chance of success. Finding a new hiding spot was a 21% chance of success.

Self-destructing was a 100% chance of success of never going back to that _place._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just rewatched Coco and woo boy, that is the only movie that can make me consecutively bawl at the same goddamn scene.
> 
> also, next chapter WILL be longer, i just wanted to focus on some specific stuff here before getting into some of the more... gritty scenes.
> 
> i hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you hopefully friday!!


	4. Stormy Nights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so sorry about the delay, this chapter took longer than expected, but i hope you all enjoy!!

**Today, July 8th, 2039**

**9:38 p.m.**

“NINES JUST COME IN, YOU ARE NOT WALKING BACK TO THE STATION IN THIS BULLSHIT!”

The one day Nines decided that he wanted to walk Gavin home after a long shift is the same day a summer storm of biblical proportions decided to grace the great city of Detroit. Thunder drummed like a rock concert above, bright flashes of lightning lit up the darkened sidewalk in front of the apartment complex the two men stood in front of. Rain poured out of the sky-like miniature waterfalls, creating thick veins of water sloshing out from the gutter drains and down the edge of the roads into the sewer drains. 

Nines was thankful for his advanced hearing technology, or else he would’ve not even heard the Detective’s loudest screams over the pounding of the rain on the pavement. The storm had hit while they were halfway to Gavin’s home, so by the time they had arrived, they both were completely drenched. He stood outside the apartment’s complex’s entrance, rain soaking him and his clothes. He was unbothered by it, as he could just turn his heat and cold sensors off until he was dry again, but Gavin sure seemed to take offense to him declining his invitation to wait out the storm in his apartment. 

Gavin was no better than him, his leather jacket still dripping as his shirt underneath clung to his body, jeans bunching up awkwardly and shoes most definitely ruined. He held the door open for Nines, refusing to enter the building until Nines made the next move and subsequently allowing himself to continue to get rained on. 

Nines weighed his options, but everything was thrown out of his possible sequences once he saw the hopeful look in Gavin’s eyes. He made two strides and was inside, hearing a small sigh of relief from Gavin as he entered in behind him, the door swinging shut as a strong gust of wind blew from outside. 

Lights flickered in the bland hallways as Nines followed his partner up the flight of stairs, a trail of water following behind them. They walked down another flickering hallway, Gavin stopping in front of a door with the faded engraving of ‘203’ in the upper center on it. He pulled out a keyring from his backpack that was sound on his shoulder, rifling through a few before holding out a silver key, sticking it in the lock and jiggling the knob before the door budged and creaked open. 

The lights inside snapped on dimly as Gavin hit the light switch, walking inside and dropping his bag near a singular metal coat rack and kicked off his shoes. Nines entered and took in the new environment, closing the door with his hand absent-mindedly behind himself.

It was a nice one-bedroom apartment for a detective’s salary, and clean at that. There was a brown loveseat situated in a small living area on his right, where an averagely sized TV was mounted on a wall and a cat tower was placed in the corner and a circular red carpet underneath the worn coffee table in the middle of everything there. On his left was an open kitchen, the chocolate-colored hardwood from the living room transitioning into a white tile floor. Not much to comment on other than the granite-top counters were spotless, aside from where two empty pet bowls sat (food crumbs were scattered around the bowls), and the appliances looked polished and brand-new. There was a closed door which he assumed led to Gavin’s room, which he would be interested in if his attention had not been stolen by a puffy ball of fur that rubbed against his damp pant-legs. 

“Ugh, Flip, no, you’ll get wet too,” Gavin grumbled once he was his cat rubbing itself against Nines, quickly snatching them up before its fur had retained any moisture or coated Nines’ pant-leg with stray hairs.

The cat itself was looked to be some kind of Maine Coon mix, it’s coat a golden color with large white paws lounging in Gavin’s arms, tail flicking happily. It was a rather large cat in size, looking almost massive in Gavin’s muscled hold, though it was probably the fur giving the cat a larger appearance. 

Gavin set the cat on the near-by counter, kicking off his tennis shoes and setting them in the kitchen sink before peeling off his socks, which dripped onto the floor as Gavin tossed them into the sink as well. He then left the kitchen and went into the room behind the closed door, which was dark but was definitely a bedroom. He heard another door open and a bright light shine into the bedroom, and Nines could only assume that that was the bathroom.

Nines stood idly, unsure as to what he could do here, in Gavin’s apartment. This was his first time inside Gavin’s home, and it felt oddly intrusive for the android. He was one of the few people Gavin allowed close enough to become friends, but this was another level for the duo. This felt uniquely personal, and the look at the front entrance Gavin had said it all. He wanted Nines to be there. He was opening up more and more to Nines, and each time it happened, it made Nines’ feelings only push themselves forward stronger than the last. What could’ve been described as a small crush a few months ago, was now what many would call a head-over-heels love for his human counterpart. 

Nines still hadn’t said anything to anyone. He had resigned himself to the fact he'd be keeping it to himself.

Gavin emerged from the bedroom a few moments later, tossing a blue towel and some clothes to Nines, who caught it seamlessly. 

“You can just throw your wet shit on the counter, I’ll put them in the dryer after I take the world’s hottest shower. Those clothes should fit you, they’re extra large,” Gavin said, rubbing at his arms in an attempt to warm up.

“May I ask why you would have clothes two times your size in your wardrobe, Detective?” Nines questioned, looking at the clothes in question. They were a pair of dark grey sweatpants and a navy blue sweatshirt, both an extremely soft and thick fabric. Nines was not the biggest fan of lazy-wear, but these were rather nice as far as sweats went.

“Man’s gotta have comfort wear, now strip, dry off and change. I’ll be out in a bit,” Gavin waved half-heartedly as he walked back into the bedroom, missing the sea blue blush that coated Nines’ cheeks at Gavin’s select words used. 

**//////**

Nines was sitting on the couch, the fluffy cat named Flip sprawled across his lap as he gently stroked it’s back. He had folded and put his towel and soaked clothes in the sink, as he didn’t want to give the counter’s water stains. His new clothes were surprisingly fitting for his size. The sweatpants were a little short but it didn’t bother him, as it kept him dry and cozy until his clothes were dry enough to wear again. 

He had been taking in every small detail of the room since he had sat down. The walls were bare besides a few framed posters from a couple videogames. No pictures or decorations hung around like the Anderson house or even his own apartment, which was decorated with an assortment of different paintings he had found over the one year he had been deviated. 

There were a stack of books just underneath the coffee table on a small shelving. Each book ranged from fantasy to historical nonfiction, none being the same as the last and on multiple topics. For example on the diversity, he found a mechanical and software engineering book which was used by university students, and a Japanese volleyball manga that was very popular in the early 2020s. Some looked barely touched while others had scuffed corners and bent pages, which were probably Gavin’s favorites. 

He also noticed three small, digital picture frames on a side table beside the couch. One had a picture of Flip and another cat curled up together in the cat tree, Flip’s fur practically engulfing its counterpart and shining like pure gold in the sunlight that casted itself through the window. The other was a selfie of Tina and Gavin in what looks like to be a restaurant, a small cake in front of Tina that had the number 34 written on it, probably her birthday from a few years ago. The last frame was empty with no picture inside, not even the crappy stock ones that come with the frame. 

Another memory waiting to be displayed. Nines wondered what that would be.

He heard a door click open and soft footsteps coming out of Gavin’s room, and without even having to turn around, Nines watched as Gavin flopped onto the small couch, holding a smaller cat in his lap. The cat was a hairless sphynx, gray in color with big green eyes. It had a small blue collar around its neck, identical to the one that Flip wore as well, though his was hidden beneath fur. It also wore a small red sweater, which amused Nines. 

Gavin himself was wearing an oversized sweatshirt and black joggers, and his hair was still damp from the shower, strands falling flatly against his skull while others were ruffled and twisted at odd angles. 

And here Nines was thinking his partner couldn’t _ possibly  _ wear anything other than that worn jacket and non-descript t-shirt.

“You have quite a diversity in pets, Detective,” Nines said, eyes going between the two cats who were quietly purring in each of their laps.

Gavin grinned and chuckled. “Yeah, tell me about it. I could make twelve sweaters out of how much hair Flip produces and give them all to Ollie.”

“Those are interesting names, do they have any significance?”

“I guess,” Gavin adjusted himself on the couch, slouching down and putting his feet up on the coffee table. “Found both of them at a skatepark while working a homicide about 4 years ago, so I thought it only appropriate to call them something skate-related. Left in a box by a dumpster, Flip was the size he is now and I didn’t even know Ollie was inside until I lifted Flip up because of how young and small Ollie was. Probably abandoned by someone who didn’t want them. And I couldn’t just _ leave _ them there, it was the dead middle of winter, so I left work early and took them home. And now we’re here.”

“And Captain Fowler approved of this?” Nines scratched underneath Flip’s chin. He was quite a soft cat. 

“What he didn’t know didn’t hurt him,” Gavin smirked. “Besides, who could resist  _ not  _ risking work reputation for these bastards?” He held up Ollie in the air to look at him, and Ollie meowed in protest as they squirmed to get out of the hold. 

“Okay, okay, drama queen,” He set the cat on the coffee table who then jumped off and padded to the cat tower in the corner, climbing it with ease into one of the top hides. Gavin sighed. “He’s a little grumpy sometimes.”

“So like you?” Nines teased light-heartedly. Flip jumped from Nines’ lap once he heard his feline friend climbing the tower, following quickly after and climbing into the same hide Ollie was in. They curled up with one another, much in a similar fashion in the picture that sat on the side table beside the couch.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “ _ I’m  _ grumpy for a reason. I treat these cats like they’re kings and they have the audacity to bite me.”

“And for what supposed  _ reason _ are you grumpy, Detective?”

“Nines, we aren’t at work, just call me Gavin. And I could write a whole list but it’d take up all the paper in my apartment and then some.”

“Okay, name one then.”

Gavin took time to answer, crossing his arms over his chest and his eyebrows furrowing in contemplation. The look was one Nines saw daily, as Gavin usually would be mulling over evidence at the computer or analyzing a case board in a debriefing meeting. He’d only present theories once he’s really sure and thought about it, and most of the time they were 90% of the way correct. Of course, not everyone would agree and that’s when arguing started, but all-in-all, Gavin did take his time with cases and evidence, no matter how fast he wanted it to be done and over with.

“People.”

Nines raised an eyebrow, turning to him. “Any specific people?”

“In general, just the human race,” Gavin laid his head back, uncrossing his arms and resting them on the top of the cushions. Nines was well aware of how close his hand was to his shoulder. 

“I mean, have you seen it? We murder one another, we steal from one another, we hurt one another. Other than Tina, I’ve given up on humanity. Kindness and mindfulness isn’t something that comes naturally to anyone, it’s taught. And from what I’ve learned, it’s not practiced often. In this day and age, it’s virtually impossible to find anyone who doesn’t have ulterior motives and an agenda when you talk to them,” Gavin tensed for a moment, bringing his arms back to cross themselves on his chest, his fingers toying with the hoodie’s strings. It was setting off some alarms in Nines' system.

“We say they’re civilized, but once you strip away the fancy clothes and titles and material possessions, they aren’t anything but animals. Sadistic animals who hurt things to get themselves off or just for the phcking hell of it.”

The venom dripped off his words bitterly, his voice lowering into a gravelly tone Nines hadn’t heard before. It made his sensors whir with analysis, but he held back as he took in what Gavin had said. 

Gavin’s outlook on his own species was depressing on its own, but the way he had worded things, something else was going on with him. He began to distance himself from humanity entirely, and his harsh depictions of how he viewed people other than Tina was concerning and definitely not healthy. At the same time, however, Nines knew there had to be a reason for it. Why else had he built up all these walls around himself, only lowering them for certain people yet continuing to obviously hold back?

Nines had his assumptions about the Detective. He had noticed the signs, how couldn’t he? He was the most advanced android after all. The violent outbursts, inability to fully trust or be vulnerable, the heavy emotional suppression, evasion to being touched, reckless and self-destructive tendencies, disregard for his actions or words even if he knows it will get him in trouble. There were smaller things, but they weren’t needed for Nines to piece together the crystal clear evidence.

Gavin was traumatized. To what extent or reasoning was not for Nines to decipher. He refused to let himself do it. He knew it was none of his business, no matter how much he wanted to fix it and make it better. He wanted Gavin to tell him on his own terms, when he was ready to talk about it. If he never told Nines, then Nines would accept and respect that while still being there for him. If he decided to tell Nines, then Nines would listen and be there for him. 

He would always do his best to be there for Gavin when he needed it, if he was wanted.

Nines noticed a sudden spike in Gavin’s stress levels, the Detective becoming quiet as his leg began bouncing up and down, throwing his hood up on his head. This was never a good sign. Whenever this happened, Gavin would ask for Nines to go away so that he didn’t lash out at him on accident or would take a smoke break on the rooftop of the DPD alone, Nines giving him space there too. 

But seeing as the storm outside wasn’t letting up, Gavin couldn’t take a smoke break outside and Nines was afraid that his close proximity might stress him out more. So, he did the one thing he thought he could do.

“I will give you some space, Gavin. You seem to be stressed and I wouldn’t want to add to it,” He stood up, beginning to take a step away. “I’ll go dry my clothes-.”

The unexpected hand was desperate as it grasped Nines’ wrist, halting and holding him in place. It was cold and calloused, grip ironclad and Nines’ could feel the small tremor as his wrist was held. He turned to face Gavin, whose face was now obscured underneath the hood from the angle Nines’ stood at.

“C-Can,” Gavin’s voice cracked before he swallowed to clear it, grip loosening some as his words came out in a unpleasantly forlorn tone. “You can stay. I.. I’m telling you it’s okay to stay this time. If you want, you don’t-.”

Nines sat back down on the couch as soon as he had processed the sentence.

Gavin still held Nines’ wrist, head bent downwards as his other hand drummed itself on the armrest. His stress levels decreased some, but were still at an unpleasant high. Nines wasn’t sure what he could do, he had never been in this position before and didn’t want to make the wrong move. He wasn’t sure if asking would make things awkward or if he should just wait-.

Nines felt the cushions shift and brought himself out of his thoughts only to feel Gavin leaning on him, head on his shoulder as he hugged his knees to his chest with one arm, his other laying against Nines’ as his hand slid up from his wrist hesitantly, entwining his fingers with Nines’ softly. 

In any other situation where this could’ve happened, Nines’ metaphorical heart would’ve been soaring from his chest cavity and he would’ve confessed on the spot. But in this moment, while his heart did do a small flip and his cheeks flushed lightly, he knew better than to view this as a romantic gesture. It was for Gavin to cope with whatever he was going through. The fact he broke his own rule just for some comfort was tell-tale enough that this was something Gavin desperately needed right now. It was something Nines would happily give to him for however long he needed it.

Twenty minutes passed without speaking, the rain outside slowly letting up as the thunder drifted further and further away from overhead. Nines monitored Gavin’s stress levels as they slowly declined, keeping in mind his body language if it were to ever become uncomfortable. 

“I’m sorry.”

Gavin’s quiet voice cut through the air like a scream. It held a somber aspect to it, though not nearly as lost and nervous as it had been before. 

“You have nothing to apologize for, Gavin. If this helps, then I’m glad to be helping. This is much better than some alternatives. I do not mind, honestly.” 

He could feel Gavin's face cringe at the pure sincerity of his words. “But this shouldn’t be your burden. I shouldn’t be the problem you need to coddle or scold whenever I get myself into trouble or a fight or when I’m…” He lost his words, letting the sentence hang in the air. 

“You are not a problem to me. You are a friend. Friends support each other, and that’s what I’m doing. This is no more a burden than you are. I’m here for you, Gavin. Tina is too, she worries about you sometimes,” He squeezed his hand reassuringly. “I don’t know what happened to you. I can see it hurts, and I understand that you act the way you do in order to protect yourself from others. I just want you to know that you can tell me when you’re ready to. Until then and even afterwards, I will be here for you when you need it. Always.”

There was a long pause between them before Gavin responded.

“I don’t deserve you.” His voice cracked again, biting back more emotion Nines’ could tell he wasn’t ready to express. He would wait for it. If this was as vulnerable Gavin could let himself be, then it was enough for Nines.

“I think I’m just what you need.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not me crying over this chapter, definitely not :,)


	5. La Femme Qui Mente

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im working on my french today so i thought might as well use it to my advantage here

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

**1:03 p.m.**

“And that’s all he said in the texts?”

“Yes. I became worried about him after the number went out of service, so I went to his apartment to see if he was still there, but he was already gone,” Nines elaborated, his voice quiet and reserved. He didn’t want to be doing this. He had barely processed that his partner was a wanted criminal, and all he wanted to do now was go home. Go home and feed Gavin’s cats and then watch a movie. He wanted to block out today. Today shouldn’t exist. It isn’t right. 

Nothing about today feels right.

He was sitting in the cold, metal chair of the interrogation room, Connor across from him while Tina paced in stress behind him. Since he was the last in contact with Gavin, he was obviously being questioned for any details that could help locate him. He had none. 

“Nothing out of the ordinary was inside? Was anything out of place, maybe he had taken it with him?” Connor asked softly. He was one of the only ones who could tell when Nines was upset or in pain, which made this interrogation a bit easier. That, and having anyone else doing the interrogation would’ve stressed Nines out more than he needed at the moment.

Nines shook his head. “No. I scanned the entire apartment, it was normal. He didn’t leave in a rush or else I would’ve seen skid marks on his floor or the apartment would’ve been a mess. I took his cats after that, I was still concerned but assumed that he had possibly broken it and would text me eventually.” 

“Gavin can’t be what they say he is,” Tina murmured, halting her pacing and turning to the twins. “The Gavin I know barely knew what blue blood’s actual term was. He hated androids for the longest time, for Christ’s sake! Why would he be an illegal android parts maker? It doesn’t make sense!”

It didn’t make sense. It made zero sense. Working with Zlatko, the Victor Frankenstein for androids? That man has gone on record to say he's never collaborated with anyone, and only bought from corrupt Cyberlife employees. Gavin, on the other hand, when the story aired about Zlatko’s heinous experiments and mutilation of deviant androids, had confided to Nines that, _“If it were up to me, I’d pop a whole clip into his greasy haired head, save everyone the hassle of knowing this man is still alive after everything he's done.”_

He sounded so infuriated. Hateful. Genuinely _Horrified._

That was one of the nights that he ended up spending the night at Gavin’s apartment.

“I’ve come to find humans are highly skilled at hiding secrets from even their closest friends. Perhaps he was leading a double-life?” Connor suggested calmly. 

Tina’s face became conflicted, eyebrows furrowing and biting her lip as she thought. When she made up her mind, her expression twisted into denial as tears glazed her eyes. 

“That’s not Gavin. He’s not… he’s not two-faced like that! I would’ve noticed something up with him, I’m his best-friend!” Tina spat, her voice getting choked up with her last few words. 

“Officer Chen, you need to take a break,” Connor said, standing up and approaching Tina carefully, putting his hands on her shoulders and slowly guiding her towards the exit. “I’ll be right back Nines. I swear, this is almost over.” 

The door shut behind them, and Nines was alone. He felt alone for the first time in what felt like months. He didn’t like it, not at all. He liked the company of others, but he was always partial to Gavin. They were practically attached at the hip, in and out of work. While working, they always had something they needed to review together, a crime scene that needed analysis, trips to the morgue or the lab for test results. Rarely would they leave each other’s side after hours, always going out places to forget about a gruesome case or spending time at each other’s residence just because they could. Of course, they weren’t together all the time, splitting up on a case to cover more ground or one of them (mainly Nines) going back home after being at the other’s home for long enough. Other than that, they were constantly within view of the other. It had become a normal occurrence, and neither of them complained about it because they both enjoyed the safe feeling it gave them.

Which is why Nines had his growing doubts about Gavin’s charges.

Nines was the most advanced detective android Cyberlife had ever produced. He was built for searching and finding the suspicious activity of everyone around him. He had so many programs that analyzed micro-expressions and signs in body language that it was impossible to lie to him. And while he may not be actively looking for signs of a threat or possible crimes, the back of his mind always was aware and alert. If something was off, he would be advised in an instant so he could look into it further consciously. 

His point being: Gavin never showed red flags to Nines once. Not even when he was angry, because that’s when raw and unfiltered Gavin tended to come out (well, more unfiltered than he was normally) and say things that he truly meant, even if he would regret it the minute after. Nines had never picked up on unnerving behavior or anything like the sort, and he was around him more than anyone else. 

Things were not adding up correctly.

**//////**

He heard the door slide open, but the shoes that clicked into the room were not Connor’s. Nines knew Connor’s shoes made little to no noise at all. This was someone else.

Nines turned and followed the womanly figure who strolled into the room confidently, her chin and nose turned up proudly while a Cyberlife guard followed her inside. They held a large and black plastic bag. It looked full of something, though Nines was more interested in the woman who gracefully sat herself down in front of him while the guard stood against the brick wall behind her.

She was fair-skinned to the point she was almost paper white. Her straightened, platinum blonde hair fell down over her shoulders to her breast, one piece tucked behind her ear, which was home to large pearl earrings that looked polished. Her face was sharply cut, resembling an upside-down triangle with defined cheekbones and a long, thin nose. Her eyes were a dark brown and big behind brown cat-eye glasses, holding a twinkle of triumph that instilled uneasiness in Nines. She wore a tightly fitted red pantsuit, the neckline square and brushing across the top of her breasts, the sleeves a semi-transparent fabric that extended down to her wrists, which were iced out in more pearl jewelry.

He knew who this was, it only took him a few seconds to recognize her. 

“Priscilla Smithe. I’ve heard many great things about you, Detective Nines,” Her voice was shrill and unattractively preppy with a distant accent. She extended a hand, but Nines didn’t take it. He had good reason to not want to, too.

Priscilla Avangeline Smithe. A world-renown French designer and programmer for Cyberlife. She worked closely with Elijah Kamski when androids were just being put out on the market, the Chloe model being one of her initial designs. She was head of multiple departments of Cyberlife before it grew exponentially, one of her more famous ones being the Prototype and Experimental Schematics Department, or PESD. While she currently was the head liaison and public image for Cyberlife’s relationship with its new deviant population, she was also a part of Cyberlife’s legal team. 

In December, she held a masquerade ball for the prominent deviants and android-activists in celebration of Cyberlife’s positively growing relationship with the new android population. In her speech, she said that she had been working with Markus on the full release of the rest of the androids still housed inside its many warehouses and storage units and that soon, Cyberlife would merge with Jericho, and all production would be mandated by androids and humans. It was a great moment, because as of that moment, Cyberlife was not open to Jericho going through their remaining warehouses and towers to set free more deviants. Only, a week later, once Jericho got to do their sweep through the storage units and Cyberlife Tower, when requesting access to the PESD Lab, they were promptly denied and sent away.

Rumors spread. Many speculate that there are new androids they are testing and building, androids they are trying to program to not be able to be deviated. Others say there are plans to take down Jericho. Plans to assassinate Markus and his merry band. While these were less than likely, it still outraged androids nationwide. Cyberlife was yet again hiding something from the public, and this time it was met with backlash and demands for the lab to be opened.

Nines was amongst the displeased androids.

“I do not believe your gaudy outfit is appropriate for this work environment,” He glowered at her, his words passive-aggressive and not at all interested. 

Priscilla redacted her hand, an amused smile on her face. “I guess your peacefulness was an over exaggeration, then.”

“So was your speech in December.”

“Ooo, ouch, yikes,” She feigned pain, but her tone turned neutral as she continued. “I can assume you would know why I am here?”

Nines nodded curtly. “You are the one who runs Cyberlife’s legal team. You also have a target on my friend's head as of this morning.”

“Speaking of your _friend,_ let’s talk about him,” She leaned forward on her elbows, looking Nines up and down. “You were the last to speak with him, correct?”

“Yes. I’ve given my statement to Detective Connor, it has everything I know about Gavin’s sudden disappearance and what happened the previous day,” Nines replied dryly, looking at his folded hands on the table, starting to disengage from the whole conversation.

“Everything?” Nines looked back up to her after she said that, locking eyes with her as his anxiety spiked. He did his best to quell it. She was just trying to get a rise out of him, testing him for reactions. He couldn’t let her get the better of him.

Straightening himself out, he stared coldly back at her. He kept his face relaxed and neutral as he crossed his legs, folding his arms over his chest. “And what exactly are you implying, Miss Smithe?”

“Why don’t you tell me, Detective?” She snapped her fingers and the statue-still guard was at her side, lifting the plastic bag onto the table and remaining there.

“I don’t see how a bag would prove me to be withholding information. If it’s intimidation you seek to inflict, you will be here for quite awhile,” Nines challenged, barely acknowledging the obvious tactic. “I’ve told my account of events. There is nothing you can pin on me that isn’t already known.”

Priscilla raised an eyebrow to his statement before speaking.

“How is your relationship with Mr. Reed?” Priscilla prosed, lifting her hand to check her nails. “Your colleagues here say you two got on well.”

Nines nodded. “We are what would be considered friends, yes.”

“Odd,” Priscilla stood up slowly, pushing in her chair and starting to pace back and forth at an even slower speed in front of Nines. “I heard he hated androids.”

“Gavin has changed. He’s much more tolerant than he used to be,” Nines never took his eyes off of Priscilla as she paced. Something about the way she spoke about Gavin felt… wrong.

“Ah, I see. I assume you were a large part of that change, yes? Surely you must’ve had a rocky start?”

“We actually had a rather pleasant first introduction. And I do not consider myself a large part of the reason he’s grown, he had been silently supporting androids before I had met him.”

“Really? Yet many officers here said Mr. Reed had a negative relationship with your brother?”

“What happened between them was the one exception to Gavin. He only recently lifted his grudge against Connor. Other than that, he did treat androids fairly and with as much kindness as he could give to strangers.”

“Hmm,” Priscilla hummed. “Was he only kind to certain people?”

“Yes. Gavin has trust issues, not many can get close to him.”

“But you did.”

Nines rolled his eyes, adjusting in his seat. “Is this conversation going anywhere? Otherwise, I’d like to take an early leave.”

“You say Mr. Reed has trust issues. Did he have any other short-comings or mental troubles you noticed?”

“I do not see how this pertains to the investigation,” Nines replied coolly. “It is not my place to discuss the psychological and emotional struggles my partner suffered from. He is a troubled man, but he’s been getting better.”

Priscilla stopped short in front of Nines, turning to him with a vicious grin.

“Would that be because you’ve been sleeping together?”

Nines’ eyes widened, rising to his feet ridgedly. He used the table to balance himself as he gave Priscilla a gobsmacked look. 

“I beg your pardon? What would give you even the inclination that-?”

Priscilla’s next movements were calculated and fluid. She approached the table, grabbed the plastic bag and dumped its contents onto the table. Wrinkled shirts and pants tumbled from the bag in a heap and a pair of shoes thudded onto the metal table. But what made the biggest mess was a brown cardboard shoebox. 

Once it was casted from the bag, it opened and spilled out a couple laminated pictures and a completely wilted rose, many of its petals having fallen off and fragmented into tiny pieces. He stared at everything on the table, struck with an exposed feeling. 

“No excuse? C’mon Nines, why don’t you try to explain your way out of this one to your buddies behind that window there?” Priscilla pointed to the two-way mirror, a malevolent tone stationing itself in her words. 

“We’ve gone through his entire apartment and found all of this. These clothes are tailored for androids, and we found them hung in his closet. The pair of shoes are a completely different size to the others we found, and were tailored for the RK model. This little shoe box? Honestly, it’s my favorite part,” She sifted through the items to spread them out further, retracting her hands once she was satisfied. “So, Nines. How about you come clean about the true nature of your relationship to Mr. Reed?”

Nines couldn’t speak. He was a deer in the headlights. His eyes had settled on one of the photos in particular, a picture Gavin had taken around Christmas. They had gone to a city-viewing point just outside of Detroit at the time, just to get away from the city for a few hours. The picture itself was himself and Gavin smiling, the city a beautiful blue and white glow against the dark sky while snowflakes danced around them. His arm was around Gavin’s shoulders, Gavin reciprocating the gesture as he snapped the photo. 

It was a calm night. Nothing bad had happened, they just chilled out in Gavin’s car and talked about nothing in particular. Once they had enough, they drove back and watched a tv show at Gavin’s apartment.

God, Nines wished he could go back to then. 

“The clock is ticking, Detective. We’re all eagerly awaiting your answer,” Priscilla’s voice cut through his reminiscing sharply, impatient and sarcastic. 

Nines blinked, lingering on the photo before slowly looking up to Priscilla, masking his heavily growing anxiety with neutrality.

“I don’t see how any of this would imply an affair?”

Priscilla snorted, shaking her head. “Really? You’re seriously going to deny this? I think a six year-old can piece this together.”

“All you are presenting are clothes, a pair of my shoes, and personal trinkets. I see no correlation that would point to an affair,” Nines repeated flatly.

“Why were your clothes at his residence, then?”

“I occasionally will spend the night there. I thought it would be easier to just have clothes and an extra pair of shoes already there, that way I didn’t need to commute back to my own home in the early hours of the morning.”

“And the photos? Wilted rose?” Priscilla crossed her arms, staring Nines down for an answer.

Nines hesitated to speak, forming his response delicately in his mind. He knew who was watching through the glass. The entire office would know by the time he left the interrogation room, and he would not leave anything to the imagination of his colleagues. 

“Detective Reed and I have been in a private relationship as of last August. The photos are memoirs from dates we’ve gone on, and the rose was a gift for his birthday,” Nines admitted. “The relationship was not born out of lustful intentions, and if it is so important to know, we have not slept together. We wanted to keep it private for this exact reason, because it should be no one else’s business but our own.”

“My account of yesterday was completely truthful; we worked together and Gavin showed no sign of agitation or abnormal stress, afterwards we joined Tina for drinks, I walked him home, and I departed after a few hours of staying there.”

The room was quiet, Nines holding eye-contact with Priscilla as she analyzed everything he said. She may have just humiliated him, but he would not let it eat away at him. Not yet, at least.

“The closest one to him, yet you still never noticed his deviancy. And here I thought you were Cyberlife’s magnum opus,” Priscilla mocked, a grin plastering across her face. 

Nines was waiting for that sentence. That smug, teasing jab that would open up the can of worms Nines was dying to spill.

“You see, that’s just the thing, Miss Smithe. I _am_ Cyberlife’s most advanced model. I have a variety of programs at my fingertips, and each runs constantly in the background of my daily life when I’m not actively using them. They can detect pretty much anything, from instabilities in buildings to changes in air moisture to the changing body language of the people I interact with day to day,” Nines explained. He began gathering the pictures and flower, placing them back inside the shoe box where they belonged, continuing his speech. 

“And like you said, I am one of the closest people he has. I’m also the one who spends the most time with him. I work 60 hours a week with him, and then if we account for how much we spend our time together outside of the workspace, we’re never away from each other for more than 8 to 9 hours at a time. My point being, I would’ve noticed strange behavior long before you would’ve, though I wouldn’t see how you could because you have never once met him nor has he been near a Cyberlife facility. In fact, I would even go to the extent that these charges you’ve accused him of aren’t legitimate.

“So, Miss Smithe, I will ask you a question: Are these charges against Detective Gavin Reed backed up with sufficient evidence that you can present to the entire DPD within the next two minutes?”

Nines watched as Priscilla averted eye contact for a moment, her demeanor changing from cocky to tensed. She wasn’t expecting for Nines to ask her that. She wasn’t prepared with a response as he watched her grapple for one on the spot.

“The evidence is classified. Cyberlife is collaborating with your department only because he worked here, and with your help, it will be a much easier task to locate and bring him in. He is a criminal, not the basket case you’ve been coddling because your programming wants you to fix every little thing until it’s new.”

That last comment filled Nines with a kind of fury he had never felt before. It was a dangerous feeling. One he may lose control of if she were to make one more unprovoked comment about a man she doesn't even know. And Nines was not looking to lose his job today too. 

“I will not be answering any further questions.”

Priscilla looked at him sharply. “Our interview is not-.”

“Am I under arrest? Am I being charged with something?”

Priscilla glowered at him. “No.”

“Then I am free to leave, but I would like for you to get out of this room, preferably this building, so that we can do our jobs, find Gavin and sort this whole situation out. So, if you would, leave now,” He gestured to the door, making it all the more clearer how serious he was.

Priscilla and her guard began to walk towards the exit after slight reluctance. As her guard was opening the door, Priscilla stopped short in front of Nines, leaning close to him.

“It’s not what you think it is,” She whispered.

And just like that, she was walking again, and disappeared out of the room with her guard, door shutting behind them and leaving Nines alone, again. Her cryptic message confused him, but maybe that’s what it was meant to do. Get his mind off of the problem at hand to focus on something that had no meaning behind it. He wasn’t going to let that happen.

One good thing did come out of this exchange:

_She was lying about the charges being legitimate._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile Gavin, who's god knows where: i said certified freak, seven days a week-  
> Tina, in spirit: wet ass p-word, make that pull out game weak  
> Nines, in spirit: yeah yeah yeah yeah  
> Gavin: yeah you dealin with some wet ass p-word  
> Connor, in spirit: *aggressively beatboxing*  
> /////  
> y'all got opinions on Priscilla? Cause i sure do. We'll be seeing a lot more from her here soon ;)


	6. Counterfeit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about any delay, I've just started back up on school so it's been hectic. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I feel like it felt rushed but the next chapter is REALLLLLLLLY good so please bare with me here!!!

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

**11:30p.m**

A ragged coat clung to the shoulders of his damaged body as he ran across the roofs of multiple buildings. Large drops of thirium dripped onto the snow behind him, staining it blue with every step taken. The sky was black, the light from street lamps below giving just enough light to see where he was going, but still masked him under the cover of darkness. 

He got away a while ago, but he was no longer safe. After a few more fights and a lot of running, laying low and finding somewhere to repair himself was his top priority. That being said, there weren’t many places that would be safe after sunrise. Even most abandoned buildings would probably be canvassed. 

Still, he needed to rest and start repairs soon. He only had another three hours before his systems would go into emergency shutdown. At that point, he’d rather take his chances walking into a Cyberlife repair clinic or Jericho.

He didn’t really want to die, either. At least, not by their hand. He could do it himself, but… 

It wouldn't be fair for everyone else. 

**//////**

Two people in uniform standing at the edge of the rail-guarded rooftop. They talked quietly, passing a cigarette back and forth underneath the dim white light that stood proudly nearby, illuminating parts of the roof and casting dark shadows on others. That’s where he was, crouched and lying in patient wait for the opportunity to present itself. 

They both began walking back to the roof’s entrance, not noticing the huddled and broken figure that pressed itself against the side of the entryway’s exterior. They opened the door and both walked back inside, but before the door closed, he had slipped into the building and slunk against the wall of the stairwell. He waited until he heard the people exit the stairwell before making his next movements. Listening intensely for any movement below, he descended as quietly as he could down the stairs. 

He knew where he needed to go. He’d been here so many times he could walk through it with a blindfold.

**//////**

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

**1:53p.m**

“Nines, you could’ve been arrested for withholding details from a primary case!”

“You never asked the specifics regarding my relationship with Gavin, therefore I didn’t have the obligation to specify. It barely changes the case, anyways,” Nines was currently sitting in the back of Lieutenant Anderson’s car, Connor driving while arguing with him. The Lieutenant had stayed behind at the department to continue helping, and Connor would be returning as well after he dropped Nines off at his home. He insisted on driving him after Nines requested to take the rest of the day off, and it was for the prime reason to get Nines alone so he could talk to him.

After Priscilla had left, Nines had to hold on to his last few slivers of composure and false confidence to leave the interrogation room with bag and box in tow to go to Fowler and request his leave for the day. Luckily, he didn’t need to travel far, as Fowler was in the observation room and met Nines in the corridor that connected the two rooms. Hank, Tina and Connor followed him out quickly, along with two cops who quickly fled to the bullpen. 

Cat’s out of the bag now, and Nines was everything but prepared for it.

His request for leave was approved and he exited the department hastily, Connor following after him with a million and one questions flying from his mouth. Nines ignored them, namely because he just wanted to be done with questions, but also because he didn’t have the right words to say. He was utterly flustered by that whole encounter, and angry at himself for not denying the interview outright. He should’ve been more cautious. He should’ve known that Priscilla wasn’t just there to ask a few innocent questions about his partner.

“What do you mean it barely changes the case? This adds a whole other layer to everything because now, there is a much higher probability that he’ll try to come to you for help!” Connor refuted, eyeing Nines in the rearview mirror. 

“He’s smarter than that. He would know that I would turn him in, regardless of our relationship,” Nines mumbled, staring out the window as he rested his head on his hand.

“Would you?”

Nines side-eyed Connor. “Whether or not I am confident Cyberlife is framing Gavin for crimes he did not commit, I am not Judge, Jury, or Executioner. He needs to be questioned and investigated just like any other suspect, and I’m sure he would understand that, especially if I believed he is innocent. I am rarely wrong, and this will not be one of those rare moments.”

“How can you be so sure, Nines? Are you sure your emotions and feelings aren’t clouding your judgement?”

“Just because I am close to him does not mean I haven’t looked at this from an outsider’s perspective. He didn’t do anything. He’s innocent.”

“Nines, I get it. You don’t want to believe he’s done any of what he’s been accused of, I don’t either. None of us do,” Connor sighed softly. “But if I am being objective, _completely_ objective, statistically… Detective Reed was the most likely to commit some type of crime against androids.”

“Stop the car.”

Connor looked back at him, pressing down on the brake gently. They were on an empty street, so Connor didn’t need to worry about making a complete stop for the time being.

“We’re not at your house yet, it’s still another 7 blocks.”

“I don’t care, I’m walking the rest of the way,” There was a brand new tone to Nines’ voice entirely. He sounded tired and irritated; two things Nines rarely ever was. It worried Connor more than he already was.

“Nines-,” Connor began to reach out comfortingly, but flinched as Nines cut him off.

“Don’t,” Nines snapped, drawing away from Connor defensively. He unlocked the car door himself and opened it, stepping out and slamming it shut. 

Connor rolled down the passenger-side window and drove the car slowly beside Nines, who was already starting to walk down the sidewalk in a huff. 

“Nines, I’m sorry-.”

“Are you Connor?” Nines shot down his brother’s apology with indignance. “Why would you _say_ that? You barely know him other than your guys’ idiotic grudge against one another! You’re not objective, you’re biased and ill informed. Everyone is.”

“I just wanted to prepare you in case he does turn out to be what he’s been charged with,” Connor refuted. “I can tell you’re already heavily affected by everything that’s been happening today. False hope can just make it worse.”

“The only false hope I had today was that Gavin would walk into the office like those texts didn’t happen,” Nines spat, walking faster in vain attempt to shake Connor off his trail, but he just sped up the car.

“Nines, please just get back in the car and we can talk about this.”

“I’m done talking, Connor. I’m going home, I’m sitting on my couch, and I’m gonna wait to wake up from whatever stasis nightmare I’m in right now.”

Connor sighed, watching Nines as he crossed his arms while a gust of wind blew over him. He was so excruciatingly tense and upset looking. Connor knew that Nines was barely holding onto the frustration that masked his fear and anguish. He couldn’t blame him for it either. There was no doubt that if this situation had happened to Hank, Connor would be scrambling to keep himself functioning and unfragmented with emotion. 

One of the disadvantages of deviancy, unfortunately.

“Please, Nines, I’m sorry. My comment was uncalled for and insensitive. Just please, let me make it up to you by driving you home. I won’t ask you anything else, it’ll be silent the whole way if that’s what you want.”

Nines slowed down, considering his options. He looked at Connor before looking back down the street. It was littered with garbage and had multiple openings to alleys. Not a good place to be walking all alone, especially as an obvious android.

Nines huffed, reluctantly shuffling his way back to the car. He climbed back into the seat he sat in, closing the door and putting on his seatbelt, completely disregarding Connor. And Connor was okay with that, beginning to drive at the speed limit to Nines’ residence. 

As promised, Connor asked and said nothing the whole way there. Nines didn’t bother saying a goodbye to his brother once they finally arrived at his small condo. He simply took his things from the car, got out and shut the door, walking away and disappearing into his home. 

Connor really hoped he would be okay alone.

**//////**

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

**4:18p.m**

“Captain Fowler, you need to see this!”

Tina’s voice cut through the space as the door to his private office swished open. Connor and Hank rushed inside behind her, Hank having the courtesy of shutting it. Tina came to Fowler’s side holding a tablet, opening some documents on it. 

“What is it? Do we have a lead on Reed or something?” Fowler asked, grabbing his glasses and pushing them up on his nose to clearly view the documents Tina was pulling up. 

“No, sir, but we found something interesting in Detective Reed’s past,” Connor supplemented the Captain’s intrigue. 

“And what about it? I have his personal history on file, I know everything already,” Fowler looked between Connor and Hank. They both looked deeply unsettled. It was perturbing.

“Jeffery, I don’t think we know anything about Reed,” Hank said. 

Fowler raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Here, sir, take a look,” Tina finally handed him the tablet, to which he took from her hands. Scrolling through, it was just a regular old background on Gavin: his high school records, diploma, birth certificate, family history, all of his basic things that every cop and detective had on file for Fowler to access.

“All I see is Reed’s background?”

“Yeah, of course but,” Tina took in a deep breath, like she was preparing herself. “Connor did a bit of digging. When Gavin texted Nines this morning, he said he was leaving on a family emergency. While that was an obvious excuse, Connor still thought contacting his folks might help the investigation. Gavin could’ve contacted them too before he went off the grid.”

“That’s when I pulled up his family history to see who I could call,” Connor continued. “I found his mother’s cell number because that was the only one there and called her. When the line picked up, I asked if they were Gavin Reed’s mother. The man on the other end said he had no idea who Gavin was or a Mrs. Reed.”

Fowler stared at Connor. “Is it possible she had changed her number and Gavin just forgot to update the file?”

“That's what Lieutenant Anderson was thinking as well, so we took a look at it. The number itself has been registered to that exact person and provider for over 17 years, much longer than Detective Reed has been working here.”

Fowler went wide-eyed, looking back down at the tablet to scroll through Gavin’s family file. “He lied about his own mother’s number?”

“Oh, it’s just getting started, Jeffery,” Hank groaned, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

“It’s more than simply lying about a phone number, Captain,” Connor began messing with a quarter as he spoke. “I found that suspicious, so I went digging into his mother’s name to see if I could find another way of contacting her. Turns out, she’s been dead for over 3 years now.”

“Why wouldn’t have-?”

“Jeffery, just let the damn kid talk,” Hank hushed Fowler.

“I did even more research into her. She was a widowed woman who had _no recorded children._ I immediately found that to be disconcerting, so I kept going. 

“I went into his high school records, then went to the high school’s website itself to see if I could find anything there. Luckily, they archive all ‘Class Of’ pictures and graduates on the site, so I went back to the Class of ‘21, which was his supposed graduation year. There was no ‘Gavin Reed’ anywhere, I scanned 12 times and there are no pictures of him, no mention of his name in the graduates columns, nothing. I even went so far as to calling the school itself, and they told me there was no record of someone named Gavin Reed attending their school _at all._

“More digging, the more unnerving this gets. His diploma was a forgery, so was his birth certificate. I had to do a bit of unorthodox hacking, but his I.D., his social security number, driver’s license, they were all forged too. Anything before the year 2024 has been completely fabricated to look like Detective Reed was born and raised in Michigan. 

  
“What I’m trying to say is… Gavin Reed is not _Gavin Reed_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gavin: hey im gay  
> Nines: .... I thought u were american  
> Tina: so he's james bond  
> Hank: tina no-  
> Connor: james bond does gavin is reed are gay?


	7. Equilibrium

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> almost 5500 words long for this chapter my peeps. have fun with it lmao.

**Today, August 27th, 2039**

**5:00p.m.**

The equilibrium between Gavin and Nines had been disturbed.

It started that morning, when Agent Perkins stopped by to take a case Nines and Gavin had been working on for weeks from right underneath their feet. Turns out, the serial murderer had links to a drug trafficking ring the FBI was investigating. Now that they were just about to hone in on the killer’s location and subsequent identity, the Feds saw it fit to take it off both of their hands. Nines had never heard Gavin swear and curse out someone as aggressively passionate as he did with Perkins. In front of the entire bullpen, no less. 

Gavin then disappeared to the roof for the next hour, leaving Nines to sift through their remaining case work for something that could suffice for the rest of their shift. Nines was also completely incensed by the way things went for them, but he needed to stay rational at least until after work. The department didn’t need _two_ broody detectives moping around the place. He doubted it could even handle more than Gavin.

When Gavin came back, barely five minutes passed before he was called into Fowler’s office. The glass fogged, acting like privacy blinds so Nines couldn’t read lips to know what was being discussed. He assumed it was reprimanding for Gavin’s disposition towards a federal agent who could report him for misconduct and verbal harassment. But the longer he was away, the more Nines worried there was something else going on.

Gavin didn’t leave that office until a good forty-five minutes had passed. And when he did, he simply walked past Nines and back towards the stairs to the roof. No reassuring grin, no playful jab, no explanation. It was the first time Gavin had purposely and completely ignored him. 

It hurt.

When Nines was called into Fowler’s office a few minutes later, it gave Nines a clearer picture of Gavin's avoidance:

“Why would I want to resign here to join the FBI?”

Nines sat in one of the chairs in front of Fowler’s desk, looking at him with puzzlement. He had made no such inclination of ever wanting to move up the ranks, especially not into the FBI. Resigning from the DPD seemed like a nightmare to him. After all, he had only been here for a little over six months. It was simply too premature.

“The pay is a hell of a lot better, you get to work independently on high-profile cases, move somewhere a bit warmer than Michigan,” Fowler listed boredly. “Look, Nines, I understand that you enjoy working here. I’m not trying to ship you off to be a government pawn. It’s just that your specific skill set and track record peaked the interest of the agents down in Virginia, and they want to offer you a position there where you could be more suited for. I thought you might’ve been interested.”

“Just because Cyberlife designed me to be fit for such a job doesn’t mean I will want it,” Nines hissed, completely offended by the fact Fowler considered that he would even think about it. “What about Connor, did they offer him a job?”

“Yes, but I have yet to discuss with him or Hank-.”

“Speaking of which, why was Gavin even in here for so long? Was he offered as well?”

“Don’t cut me off, Detective,” Fowler warned. “And no, he was not.”

“So then why did you need to talk to him for forty-five minutes? It never takes you more than ten minutes to effectively scold someone, especially Gavin.”

Fowler sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. This day must have his blood pressure higher than usual, especially if the FBI was trying to recruit some of his best away from the department. 

“The FBI wanted a video statement from Gavin, saying whether or not you deserved the opportunity and why. Since he worked with you closest, he had the most insight on your sense of character and skills,” Fowler explained, leaning back in his seat. “We argued over it for a bit before I had to throw the hammer down and threaten another disciplinary strike on his file. That’s when he finally submitted and did it.”

“What did he say?” Nines asked immediately. He was honestly anxious as to how Gavin would’ve characterized him, especially when he was already livid and emotionally volatile. 

Fowler shrugged. “He was dead honest. Said you were more than worthy of being instituted as a federal agent, that you would perform exceptionally well and surpass all expectations with flying colors. He also added that you are excellent with working with others and respectful as well as kind to those who don’t even deserve it.”

Nines blinked. Then blinked again. He was… pleasantly surprised. Flattered, even. It was just very… _confusing_ that Gavin put effort and actual care into an interview that would’ve made or broke his chances at joining the FBI, not that he was going to anyways. He was perfectly happy here, with the department, with his job, with his family and friends. With Gavin.

“He spoke very highly of you. I doubt the FBI wouldn’t hire you with your resume and that kind of praise,” Fowler commented when Nines didn’t respond. “Are you sure about this, Nines? This is a pretty rare opportunity, I doubt it’ll bring itself back anytime soon.”

Nines shook his head, standing up from the chair. “The offer is generous, but I will not be accepting. You can assure them that I am not seeking other employment options, and that I am more than content working here as a Detroit detective.” 

Fowler stood with him, extending his hand and Nines took it, shaking it firmly. 

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. I’ll make sure to tell them to stop snooping around my officers,” Fowler joked, a relieved smile on his face.

“I would hope so. Have a good afternoon, Captain,” Nines nodded curtly at Fowler before turning and leaving the office.

Now, it was time to find Gavin and tell him that he wasn’t going anywhere.

**//////**

It seemed getting Gavin to talk to him would be harder than he thought. 

When Nines went to the roof to see if he was still up there, he was nowhere to be found. When he searched around the bullpen and break room, he was also nowhere. He eventually found out from Chris that he took a lunch with Tina, so that calmed his nerves slightly. That meant Gavin wasn’t actively hiding from him. He just wanted to sort this whole ordeal out and maybe they could try to end the day off better than it had been going, with a night out or something they’d usually do to take the stress away.

Except, when Tina came back alone, he was instantly hit with a wave of alarm. When he asked her where Gavin had gone, she informed him that he had gotten sick while they were out and went home for the day. However, Gavin was in perfect health. The chances of him becoming suddenly ill were very, very low. He was completely avoiding him. And to Nines, it was the worst feeling he had ever experienced.

He had an inkling as to why he was doing this. Mixed with the stress of the day and Gavin’s own personal issues, it was likely he was preparing for the worst possible outcome. By trying to push away Nines, Gavin was throwing up a wall between them so he wouldn’t be so emotionally compromised if Nines had decided to take the job offer. That is what he understood, if it was the case. But what truly bewildered him was that Gavin thought he would _take_ the job in the first place. 

He decided that after work he would stop by Gavin’s home. He had to tell him he wasn’t taking the job. Maybe it would help smooth things over, if not at least instill the notion Nines had no intention of leaving anytime soon.

**///////**

“You should’ve taken it.”

There Gavin stood, leaning against the kitchen counter as he stared off into the blank wall. He refused to make eye contact with Nines since he answered the door, distancing himself the moment Nines had stepped into the apartment. He had changed out of his regular shirt and jacket and into one of his oversized hoodies. He didn’t show any signs of sickness, so Nines was correct when he inferred Gavin faked it.

“What do you mean?” Nines was sitting on the couch, Ollie stretched out on his lap as he pet him calmingly. 

“You would’ve been a good Fed, is all. With your skills and attributes, you could easily climb ranks there. Maybe even run the whole shebang if you’re lucky,” Gavin shrugged, keeping his tone cool. But no matter how hard he could try to hide it, Nines could still detect the soft despondency in his words. “You’d be doing a lot more there then you are here, and probably on stuff that really matters. Politics and what not. It suits you.”

“But I like what I’m doing here. With the department, with you, with the cases we’re assigned. I don’t need some fancy title and badge. Besides, I don’t want to be working anywhere near Agent Perkins,” Nines attempted at some humor, but it didn’t get through to Gavin, who just kept looking at the wall, with a thousand yard gaze. He looked lost and not really there in the conversation. It wasn't a matter of interest. Something else was bugging him.

“Gavin, are you alright?” Nines asked after some silence between them. Gavin shook his head. 

“No, I’m not,” He crossed his arms over his chest, his body language shifting to a defensive state. “Nines, that was a one-time deal. The FBI almost never tries to manually recruit someone off the police force. You had a free ride to a much better life, and you denied it for what? Being a city detective? Me?”

Gavin definitely sounded a lot more bothered now. It wasn’t something Nines was expecting from him at this moment, and he didn’t want to argue over something trivial like this.

“Like I said, I enjoy what I’m doing, and I take pride in being partnered with you. I didn’t want to let that go, so I declined. I don’t see why you would be angry?”

“I’m angry because that was the stupidest decision you could’ve made!” Gavin shouted. Ollie quickly hopped off Nines’ lap, scampering away from the loud reverb that bounced off the walls of the apartment. “It’s like you didn’t even think about it!”

“I didn’t need to, Gavin, I knew what I wanted as soon as Fowler presented me with the offer,” Nines defended, standing up from the couch. “Why are you acting like this, I thought you would be relieved to hear I wasn’t leaving?”

“You shouldn’t assume so many things,” Gavin responded bitterly. Against Nines’ good composure, he was starting to get irked by Gavin’s blatant rudeness.

“What, you _wanted_ me to leave?” Nines asked. When Gavin didn’t answer, Nines searched his face for deception. He found it, along with the same guarded look.

“Gavin, you’re not hard to read, I know you are lying. Please, why are you trying to push me away?” He fought his own urge to approach him. He knew that it would be seen as an antagonization by Gavin.

“I’m not, I’m just angry that you didn’t even consider the opportunities this would’ve presented you,” Gavin blatantly lied. 

“Gavin, you can tell me-.”

“You don’t deserve this!” Gavin blurted out, cutting off Nines as he began to rant. “This city, this job, you’re so much better than what it gives you. You deserve more than you think, and that job in Quantico would’ve done that for you! Plus, you’d get to work independently instead of with a partner. You’d be better off!”

“Gavin, I’m perfectly happy here,” Nines reasoned, utterly dismayed with what this argument was turning into. “I’m not better than anyone or anything and I enjoy working with someone else, especially you. Why can’t you accept that?”

“Because it’s not right!”

“What’s not right, Gavin?!”

“You gave up the job offer because of me!”

The home became quiet once more, the words hanging in the air as they both took a minute to process their next moves. Gavin was looking at Nines now, glaring at him with disingenuous ferocity while Nines stared back at him in shock.

“Gavin, I…” Nines gathered his words together. “Yes, you were one of the reasons I didn’t take the job. But you shouldn’t try to blame yourself for it, I was the one who made the final decision.”

“Nines, don’t you get it? I drag you down,” Gavin retorted, beginning to pace back and forth in the threshold of the kitchen and living room. He only paced when he was heavily stressed. Nines knew he wasn’t gonna like what he saw if he scanned him. 

“No, you’re a valuable-.”

“Don’t,” Gavin stopped him. “Please, just… don’t. You’re just saying that because you want to make me feel better. But it shouldn’t be your job to babysit and repair my problems or my piss poor mood. You shouldn't have to feel like you need to be there 24/7 to make sure I’m fine.”

Nines opened his mouth to speak, but was only cut off again.

“I’m not a good person, Nines. I’m an asshole to everyone, I don’t have regard for my consequences when I take action. I’ve said and done some pretty shitty things, sometimes to good people. You shouldn’t even be here right now after I blew you off at the station. You should be mad at me,” Nines could hear his voice beginning to crack, turning his face away from Nines while he slowed his pacing to a stop. 

“So why aren’t you angry?”

His question hung in the air as Nines thought about today’s events. When Gavin had brushed him off, he didn’t remember being annoyed in the slightest. He just remembered feeling anxious, worried that something had happened that was even worse than Perkins taking their case. It only doubled when Tina had told him Gavin went home for the day. Yet, when Gavin opened the door to his apartment when Nines came by, there was a weight lifted off his shoulders. It was like seeing Gavin at least not in terrible distraught gave him peace of mind, even if Gavin was still somewhat angry at Nines. Though at this point, it was clear his anger was displacing itself onto the FBI situation instead of what was really bothering him: 

Despite it all, Nines still cared.

“I think,” Nines said slowly, planning his words delicately. “While you have your flaws, and while you have trouble with people and with trying to overcome your own issues, you have a good heart. 

“I know that pushing me away was instinct for you. You were afraid and in order to protect yourself, you created distance. You thought that since it was such a sweet deal, there was no way I wouldn't take it. You were preparing yourself for the loss of someone close to you, and I can’t be mad at you for that.

“I do not think of you as a charity case or a liability or a chore. You’re my friend, and helping and supporting one another is a key aspect to friendship. Your issues, whatever they are, takes a toll on you and I can see that. Sometimes it’s a glimmer and then it's gone, other times I can tell it’s eating away at you. That’s not pain you should have to deal with alone. No one should.”

Gavin was leaning on the kitchen counter again, this time elbows resting on the surface as he held his head in his hands. He looked so tense, but at the same time he showed signs of being relieved. How Gavin was so capable of being two opposites at once was one of the things Nines found both attractive and fascinating about him.

It was another few minutes before he responded.

“You’re too good of a person. I don’t want to hurt you, Nines,” Gavin’s voice was meek, a grand contrast to the strong vocals he presented minutes prior. “If I hurt you, I don’t think I could forgive myself.”

“You haven’t done anything like that before. And I fully trust that if we do say or do something to displease the other, we can work it out,” Nines reassured, taking a few tentative steps towards Gavin. “Why would you not forgive yourself?”

Gavin didn’t respond at first. He shuffled from foot to foot, contemplating something. When he did respond, he took Nines’ breath away.

**//////**

**Today, January 8th, 2040**

**9:53a.m.**

The morning air was bitterly chill on top of the DPD’s roof. The white sun was hidden behind mutely gray clouds which almost faded into the colorless street and buildings ahead, snow having layered itself over almost everything from last night’s flurry. Everything was quiet up here, aside from the wind that sometimes blew and messed with his hair. But it gave Nines room to think and reflect, and that’s what he needed right now. 

When he arrived home the day prior, he finally let himself process… everything. He desperately tried everything to get a hold of Gavin or track him, from email to call to text. When nothing went through, Nines didn’t know what to do with himself. He felt completely useless, which was not a feeling he felt often, and he had no idea how to deal with it other than to just let everything out. It was a lot of tears, too much pacing, and not enough comfort or reassurance. The cats could only do so much. 

It was a very, _very_ rough night to say the least. 

Now when he came back into work this morning, not only was he being silently judged by his colleagues, no, because it was never that simple. Hank and Tina pulled him aside and informed him on the new information they and Connor had dug up yesterday afternoon. That Gavin’s identity was completely fabricated, or at least everything up until the year 2024. He wasn’t who he said he was. That’s when he came up to the roof.

Nines still adamantly believed Gavin was innocent of the crimes he was convicted of. It just didn’t make sense for him to have been dabbling in the black market android scene when he firmly was against their existence nearly a year and a half ago. Everything else, though, was off the table. He had no idea what to make of the forgery and lies.

On one hand, you could infer that Gavin had definitely come from somewhere not based in the U.S., and was possibly running from pre-existing crimes or dangerous life he might’ve lived before 2024. They were still working on crossing his headshot with the international wanted list, so it’d be a while before they found out anything. The other option was that, again, he had come here illegally, but for different reasons. Nines was reminded of Gavin’s bouts of dissociation and anxiety attacks, along with various other symptoms of PTSD. He may have been trying to escape someone, or whatever caused him to be like he was. Nines knew that there was a likely chance that it was a mix of both possibilities. Either way, he was dating a criminal. 

Truly becoming of him; the android who couldn’t break a rule without snitching on himself didn’t see that his partner was walking around breaking at least ten.

He felt betrayed. That was a feeling he couldn’t help but experience at this point. He really thought he knew Gavin inside and out, that there were no secrets between them excluding Gavin’s trauma. He had poured out everything he had and was to him, but it was now clear that Gavin had barely given him a drop of himself, his actual identity. Instead, it was a farce. And Nines’ never once saw through it.

Was this his only alias, or were there more? Was he already half-way across the state? Country? Planet? Was it really that easy to drop everything, everyone he had here, just to save his own skin? These questions swam around in Nines’ head like sharks, ready to jump out and chomp down on his last shred of hope that remained for things to not be like what they seemed.

He felt his phone buzz and he reached for it in his back pocket, checking to see a text message from Tina:

_[10:02a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Officer Tina Chen_

**hve u seen offcer malcolm’s pone? he siad he left it here lastt niht and now cant find ut**

She typed too fast and never had autocorrect on. 

_You: SENT MESSAGE [10:02a.m]_

**No, I have not seen Officer Malcom’s phone.**

_[10:03a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Officer Tina Chen_

**woh, no corectig my speling?**

Nines was notorious for correcting and translating Tina’s text messages back to her before replying. Hank said that’s what being the ‘grammar police’ is, but Tina has said before she finds it entertaining.

_[10:05a.m.]_

**Do u want some company up there, big guy?**

When Tina actually took time to type and spell, you could tell she was worried about you. Nines was no exception.

_You: SENT MESSAGE [10:05a.m.]_

**If we can talk about anything other than what’s going on right now, I think I would appreciate the presence of a friend.**

_[10:06a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Officer Tina Chen_

**omw, give me a few**

He sighed and put his device back in his pocket, leaning against the roof’s rail guard again. He had the ability to send and receive both calls and text messages through his mainframe inside his head, but he found having a phone felt more personal than the programs and systems that ran in his head. It was also more customizable, which he found to be rather fun. He had at least 4 different cases for the device, and he enjoyed changing his wallpaper frequently. Plus, he could play an assortment of games, most of which Gavin had introduced him to. Most of them were brain games or puzzles, and all of them Nines had a blast playing in his free time.

It was Gavin who had actually gotten him his phone in the first place. It was the week before Halloween, and Gavin said he was upgrading his phone to a newer model that had come out 4 weeks prior. But instead of trading in his old phone for a lower price on the new one, he bought the new one at full price and gifted it to Nines. He refused to not let Nines take it, insisting it was a necessity for him and would make it look less weird when Nines took calls (it looked like he was talking to himself), adding that he had been planning on doing this for a while anyways. After a few days of bickering back and forth, Nines relented and gave into Gavin’s persistence. They had the exact same argument when Nines bought Gavin’s apartment decorations to spice up the place a few days later. In the end, they just kissed and accepted each other’s gifts. 

What Nines would give to go back to that time… 

He was brought back out of his reminiscing by the gentle vibration of his phone. The chirpy ringtone echoed across the rooftop as he pulled the phone back out of his pocket to see who was calling.

_INCOMING CALL FROM: Officer London Malcolm_

‘ _Odd,’_ Nines thought before brushing it off. ‘ _He must’ve found it and needs me for something.’_

He swiped the answer call button and held it to his ear, greeting Officer Malcolm neutrally.

“Detective Nines answering. What do you need, Officer Malcolm?”

There was only silence that followed, aside from what sounded like muffled shuffling and phones ringing in the background.

“Officer Malcolm? Can you hear me?”

“... I can hear you perfectly, tin-can.”

Nines froze, eyes widening with surprise. 

Gavin’s voice sounded exhausted and crackly, like he had a bad connection, but Nines could hear the smile on his face. 

He wasn’t gone.

_He was okay._

“Gavin…” Nines nearly choked up, having to fight back tears that threatened to pool in his eyes. All of his other emotions he had been feeling were completely trumped over by overwhelming relief to just be hearing his voice. 

“I’m okay, Nines, I’m okay,” Gavin reassured, the words the most soothing thing he’s heard over the past two days. “God, I’m so sorry. None of this was ever supposed to happen, I can’t even fucking imagine how confused you and Tina are.”

“Where are you?” Nines asked, voice trembling as emotions overthrew any sense of composure he had. “Please just turn yourself in, we can sort this all out. I know you’re innocent-.”

“It’s not that simple, babe,” Gavin said softly. “There’s a lot I haven’t told you. There are reasons I can’t surrender myself willingly.”

“I don’t care!” Nines voice broke. “We can protect you from whatever reason Cyberlife is after you. _I_ can protect you. We can meet up somewhere, I won’t leave your side until all charges are dropped and you’re left alone.”

“Nines, even you know that’s not going to work,” Gavin refuted. “By now, you and the rest of the department know I didn’t exist until 2024. No matter what, Nines, I’m in big trouble.”

Nines bit his lip. He knew Gavin was right. No matter how you looked at it, Gavin would end up arrested and charged with something. It only made Nines want to slam his fist into something out of frustration. He slunk down to the roof’s floor, sitting against the small wall as he brought his knees to his chest.

“Gavin?”

“Yes?”

“Can you please explain what’s going on?”

There was a deep sigh on the other end of the line. 

“I can’t. Not right now. I will, babe, I swear I’ll explain everything to you the first chance I get,” Gavin promised. “But right now, you are in danger.”

“What do you mean?”

“Cyberlife is willing to do anything to get me to give myself up. _Anything_ ,” Gavin said. “They are willing to play dirty, and that means they might target you or Tina.”

“They can’t do that-.”

“They can and they will. Has Interpol shown up yet?”

“Interpol? Why would they have anything to do with you?”

“They are the ones I’m running from, along with Cyberlife.”

Nines paused. Interpol was a pretty serious organization to be running from. Gavin did something. Something big.

“Gavin, what did you do?”

“Nines, please, don’t start doubting me now. You need to trust me when I say I did nothing but run from them,” Gavin pleaded. The audio quality cracked more, but he could hear the genuine fear being conveyed by Gavin. Nines had to believe him, even if his logic was telling him not to.

“... What do you need me to do?”

“Get out of the department. Leave quietly, bring Tina with you, and don’t draw attention. Go home, pack a bag, get the cats and go to Windsor Airport. There are two tickets, one for you and the other for Tina and the cats. You’re going to separate locations and then you’ll meet back up in Briton, U.K.. I’ll be there waiting.”

“Are you sure fleeing the country is necessary? Won’t they just track you or us? How will we even find you if we get that far?”

“Turn off your guys’ phones and only pay in cash,” Gavin advised. “Stay around the airport but not in it, I’ll find you eventually. And don’t worry, I know how to outsmart them. I’ve done it once before, haven’t I?”

“Gavin, are you _sure?”_

“This is the best chance if we’re going to be together again and safe,” Gavin assured. “I don’t want to lose you, Nines. You’re the best thing to ever have happened to me.”

Nines sniffed, wiping away at his eyes. “I don’t want to lose you either.”

He heard Gavin’s bitter-sweet laugh on the other end. 

“You’re just saying that, dork. When you see me again, you can strangle me, you have my full permission. I know you probably want to.”

“I’ve thought about it, for sure,” Nines laughed. “After all of this, no more secrets, okay?”

“I promise,” Gavin’s voice was warm and truthful. Nines knew he’d hold to his word. “I need to go, Nines.”

“Wait, no, please don’t!”

“I can’t, I need to go,” Gavin sounded on the verge of tears himself. “Please do what I asked, I’ll be waiting for you. I love you, Nines, I always have.”

“Gavin, no-!” Nines heard the line go dead, stopping him mid-sentence. It was only a moment later and he threw his phone with all his might across the roof, hitting against the roof’s entrance door with a loud _BANG_ and bouncing off into a pile of snow. He raked his fingers through his hair, allowing the waves of panic and frustration to wash over him as he let his forehead rest on his knees. Tears were freely pouring out of his eyes now, and his body felt oddly buzzy while his head felt foggy and disoriented. He was well aware of his stress level, as it flashed a bright red in front of everything else on his alert system. 

It was all too overwhelming, everything was crumbling beneath him, it felt like he needed to breathe even though he didn’t need oxygen-.

“Nines?!”

His head flipped up and he saw Tina rushing towards him, two heavily armed guards waiting at the open door. He flinched when she touched him, hiding himself back in the shell he had created for himself. She drew her hand back, but spoke softly as well as urgently.

“Nines, we have to go inside, we’re under lockdown. Someone broke into the department last night.”

**//////**

**Today, August 27th, 2039**

_“Because I love you, Nines.”_

The room was quiet as both men processed what was just said. Nines initial reaction was shock, but it melted into joy and excitement. But, he could tell that was not what Gavin was feeling. In fact, quite the opposite in fact, as he backed up from Nines and averted eye contact.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-.”

It was Nines’ prime objective to make sure Gavin knew he wasn’t alone.

“Gavin, I love you too,” There was another long pause. Nines was ever so patient with his emotionally constipated partner while he let his words sink in. 

And then, with no words, Gavin walked up to Nines and hugged him. Nines hugged back, and he could feel the tension in Gavin’s body leave him inch by inch. There was an invisible weight that had been lifted off of both of them, he could tell. This was one of the final walls that needed to be broken between them. 

And he could tell how glad Gavin was by how tightly he hugged him. It was like he didn’t ever want to let go. Neither did Nines, and if they were to stand there for the rest of eternity, he wouldn’t complain. 

A better equilibrium was restored in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact, i wrote some of this in english class cause my teacher left early :D
> 
> also haha another cliffhanger get rekted scrubs >:)))


	8. UPDATE

Hi guys! I'm very sorry about the long delay for the next chapter, I've been very very busy with school and personal problems that I've been experiencing as of late. The fic is not on hold, but I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out. I'm aiming for the end of this week, but in all honesty my brain might need a few more days than that.

If you haven't already, I do have another Reed900 fic on my profile called 'Gavin Gets a Cat in the End' that you can read while you all are waiting on the next chapter upload. It is significantly longer and has a linear timeline unlike what is being done in this book. But don't fret! I'm not leaving this baby in the dust :D

I do hope you all understand and again I apologize for such a delay. I'll see you all in the next installment!!!


	9. THE RETURN

JESUS FUCKING CRIMENY

Hello.

It is I.

The myth, the legend, the ghost of Christmas past.

Let me do y'all a favor and catch you guys up:

1\. I ran for Homecoming King as a joke and actually won so yeah, that's a thing now

2\. I hit 300 on TikTok, which is pretty sweet

3\. Tried out for my high school's play, unfortunately did not get in

4\. Grades are slowly improving

5\. I HAVE FINALLY SET MY MIND ON WHERE IM TAKING THIS GODDAMN STORY BITCHESS

So yes, as you can tell from my excitement in the last bullet point: I have storyboarded out an ending to this book. I know, I know, very sad, but don't worry! The ending is not coming soon because I still have a lot I want to explore in this book before I put a bullet in it. And who knows, maybe there's a possible sequel ;)

I do heavily enjoy this book and I'm so glad to be back in the saddle when it comes to writing, but I cannot thank you all enough when it came to all the kind-hearted messages on my last update. I have been very busy and stressed, but I'm ready to come back and produce some good ole chapters for your guys' delight! 

The next chapter will be out in 2-3 days, or if I pull a Scott Cawthon it'll be out hours after I post this update. I thank you all again for your patience and support while I was gone, and I hope you will enjoy what I have in store for you guys in the coming weeks!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on my other socials!!
> 
> Twitter: @CountBees  
> Insta: can.u.count.bees.the.sequel  
> TikTok: can.u.count.bees


	10. Plans Awry : Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PART ONE OF TWO OF THE END OF ACT 1!!!  
> dw this book is continuing into act 2 under this title, but this and the next chapter are the end of this act  
> also apologies for the delay, i'll explain in author's notes below but for now, feast your eyes upon some good ol' Nines

**Today, January 8th, 2040**

**10:25a.m**

If Nines systems and processors weren’t overwhelmed already, the situation in the bullpen only heightened his anxiety. 

Officers were being corralled into the office space of the department as armored guards walked and stood watch in the building’s corridors and by the exits. Each guard wore the same plastic looking grey armor and their faces were hidden beneath darkened visors on their helmets. They wore no indication of who they were, but from what Nines could infer from what Gavin had told him: this was definitely INTERPOL. 

As Tina had him sit down in his desk chair, he turned off his auditory processors for a moment of pure silence from the stomping and mumbled gossip that surrounded him at all sides. He knew that it wouldn’t decrease his stress levels a lot, but at least unnecessary noise wasn’t bombarding his senses. He even leaned over and rested his head on the desk’s edge, closing his eyes and focusing back to the conversation he had with Gavin.

It brought him comfort he couldn’t have ever fathomed feeling. Hearing his voice, knowing he’s alright wherever he was, that’s what Nines needed in order to feel a small sense of relief. Along with seeing him in the flesh, preferably unharmed of course. 

Though, much of the Gavin mystery still tugged on his pant leg like a petulant child, craving to be answered and solved. Where he came from, who he was, why he was using Officer Malcom’s phone instead of a burner-.

That’s when the clearest realization hit him. 

_Someone broke into the department the night before. Gavin had Officer Malcolm’s phone._

**Was Gavin still possibly inside the building, and that’s why INTERPOL is stationing itself all around?**

It was all too coincidental. Nines had been too emotionally overrun to realize the implications of Gavin somehow having access to Malcolm’s phone, but now that his systems were beginning to piece together the puzzle. While it was probably best for Nines to understand this, it only made his dread increase as he looked around the precinct, scanning for the familiar scarred face that promised him the sanity he was slowly losing. While he was doing that, he felt someone’s hand touch his arm and he jumped, his audio processors kickstarting themselves on right in the middle of Tina’s sentence.

“- are you okay? What are you looking for?” Tina asked him, aimlessly looking for whatever Nines was.

“Him, he’s here Tina,” Nines whispered in a hushed tone, afraid that one of the patrolling guards would overhear him.

“Who-?” She cut herself off with a gasp and leaned closer to Nines, lowering her voice. “Are you sure?”

“Why else would they call a lockdown?” He looked at Tina for a moment, before looking past her and seeing Priscilla Smithe being escorted into Captain Fowler’s office. The glass that made up the walls of the room were completely opaque instead of the regular transparent, which only happened when Fowler had some sort of important or private meeting. As quickly as she was there, she disappeared behind the office’s door along with her security personnel. 

“He’s in the building, somewhere,” Nines concluded, looking back to Tina. The chilling feeling he got when Priscilla entered his field of view was enough to make him more desperate to either get out of the precinct or find Gavin. He’d prefer the latter, but he knew Gavin wanted him to follow through with the plan. Staying around would just put him and Tina in more danger of being used as pawns to get Gavin to come out.

“Tina, we need to get out of here,” Nines whispered to her, trying to mask his fearful demeanor with the regular monotone neutrality he possessed regularly. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even muster hiding his quivering tone, placing a hand on Tina’s as his eyes darted from guard to guard, making sure none of them were taking prolonged looks at them. 

“Nines, I don’t wanna be here either, but-.”

“No, you don’t understand Tina. We aren’t safe here,” Nines took a deadly serious tone with her, staring into her eyes long enough for her to know that he wasn’t lying. Tina looked pale for a moment, before composing herself quickly and smiled at Nines. She then sat on Nines’ desk and inconspicuously looked around, taking out her phone and beginning to text someone. When Nines got the message notification on his mainframe, he himself leaned back in his seat, trying to appear less green in the face while they had a silent conversation.

_[10:33a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Officer Tina Chen_

**how do you know we’re in danger? i believe you, i just want to know**

_YOU: SENT MESSAGE [10:34a.m.]_

**Gavin contacted me 25 minutes ago. He said that we will be used against him, and that for our own safety we need to get out of Detroit.**

  
  


He glanced over at Tina, who had covered her gaped mouth in surprise. She then frantically typed out:

**is he ok?? didh e say anytihng else??**

_YOU: SENT MESSAGE [10:35a.m.]_

**He did not say much other than his apologies for putting everyone through this and that he’d explain everything once we get to a safe location.**

  
  


_[10:35a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Officer Tina Chen_

**What’s a ‘safe location’ in this situation then?**

_You: SENT MESSAGE [10:36a.m.]_

**Brighton, United Kingdom.**

_[10:36a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Officer Tina Chen_

**jesus**

_[10:37a.m.]_

**are we actually going to flee the country for someone we barely knew?**

Nines paused, but the answer was set in his mind already.

**Whoever he is, or whatever he did, he still cherishes us enough to want to protect us from harm. I may be biased, but my loyalties and trust lie with him indefinitely.**

He watched from the corner of his eye as Tina stared at his message, the speeding contemplation within her eyes showing as she weighed her choices. Nines knew that Gavin’s false identity had affected her all the same as him and everyone else. He knew she probably felt betrayed by her once good friend, but he also knew that she wanted answers, or a reason to believe in Gavin again. A reason to give him another chance.

_[10:39a.m.] MESSAGE FROM: Officer Tina Chen_

**i could use a vacation.**

**//////**

The plan was simple:

Tina would fake an emergency that required the bathroom and slip out the emergency exit that was located right next to the bathrooms. Nines would then go ‘check on’ her after an indefinite amount of time and exit out of the exit himself. From there, they would meet at his house and be at the airport in no less than an hour and a half, and by the time INTERPOL or the rest of the DPD realized they were on the run, they would already be on their international flights and well away from danger. Maybe it would even give Gavin a chance to slip away amongst the chaos of two more rogue officers being discovered, if he really was in the building like how Nines theorized. 

Except, life was never simple. And sometimes, it’s the smallest details that completely ruin a bigger picture. Exhibit A being: Nines and Tina, handcuffed and sat in the Captain’s office, surrounded by INTERPOL guards and agents, along with a flabbergasted Captain who sat his his chair across from them and smirking Miss Smithe who stood next to the Captain with her hands folded behind her back. And over what?

An INTERPOL guard reached out their arm between the two handcuffed, dropping a plastic bag on the table, which held Nines’ phone. The phone he had thrown on the roof and completely forgot about. The phone whos’ number was linked to Nines’ main communications ID and used instead of a secured line, like he should have thought about. It was cracked across the screen diagonally, but was still in perfect working order as they stared at the conversation they had in the bullpen merely minutes ago, which was opened for all to see.

“Planning an international road trip in times like this, officers?” Priscilla purred tauntingly. Her eyes canvassed over Nines and Tina like a hungry lion, just itching to really tear them down piece by piece. “Not only to add the blatant cover-up of direct contact with our suspect? My, my, you two are quite the double agents.”

“I was the only one who spoke to him,” Nines said, looking down to avoid the disappointed stares Fowler was giving or Priscilla’s malevolently gleeful smile. “Tina only agreed to leaving, she’s of no use to you other than a willing follower. She knows nothing.”

He could almost feel Tina’s protest beginning, but he just shook his head towards her. It was of no use to even try to deny what Nines said, and it wasn’t Tina’s job to take responsibility for the suggestion and plan for leaving. If anyone was going to be punished harshly, it should be him. Nines should’ve done better. _Been_ better. 

Priscilla hummed, slowly moving from her position beside Fowler as she ran her painted-nail finger along the edge of the desk. “So, you’re saying Miss Chen here was only complicit in running off with you?”

“Correct. She has had no contact with Gavin, and would only be breaking lockdown procedure and protocol.”

“But, I thought she knew that you were all going to have a little reunion in the Motherland? Isn’t that assisting and accessory to helping the suspect get away? I’d argue she’s just as guilty as you are, Nines.” 

When Priscilla’s response was only met with uncomfortable silence, she let out a breathy, oddly content sigh as she began to make her way around the desk and to Tina, folding her hands behind her back once more.

“I’ve always wondered if even the most up to date RK models can crack underneath pressure,” She now stood behind Nines, her overbearing presence raising the tension Nines experienced throughout his entire body. He clenched the armrest anxiously, vainly hoping it could release some of it to no avail as the cold metal threatened to snap in his grasp. “I guess we’ve figured out the right circumstances to make that happen.”

When the thin and soft hand of Priscilla slid down his arm in a petting motion, Nines jerked his entire body impulsively. Her touch both repulsed and incensed him with his buried anger towards both her and Cyberlife all at once. Even though her hand had snapped back, he almost made the unwise move to go for it before being met with the synchronized clicks of guns cocking. The INTERPOL agents within the blink of an eye had all guns pointed to Nines, ensuring that if he followed through with his actions that there would be fatal consequences. That alone made his survival protocols kick in, and the unearthed rage he felt burning throughout him was wrangled back down into himself as he settled back into his chair, with the only indication of his stress was his glowing red LED.

At least Fowler was still a little bit on his side as he stood up, staring down Priscilla as he spoke in an authoritative tone and loomed over his desk. 

“Don’t touch my officers. They may have fucked up, but I will not tolerate harassment of any kind, by anyone. You may be above me with your INTERPOL buddies behind you, but you are not above basic decency.”

Nines couldn’t see Priscilla as she was still behind him, but she sounded bored with her reply as she sighed.

“Of course, Mr. Fowler. I apologize, Detective Nines. I hope I did not harm you.”

The insincere apology raised Tina to finally speak up, her simmering anger finally tipping to the boiling point: “At least sound like you mean it, bitch!”

“I apologized, isn’t that enough?” Priscilla said, finally moving from her position from behind them and making her way back to Fowler’s side. As she took her sweet time, she added to her statement with: “Why is she still in here, she knows nothing. Take her back out and put her in a holding cell until we figure out her fate.”

Two of the six guards in the room were on Tina in seconds, swiftly lifting her by the arms from the chair and forcing her to walk out of the office. She had no way to try to fight it, and saw the implied punishment if she did. Since no one wants to die, she let them take her with little physical or verbal protest. She gave Nines one last fearful look before she was gone behind the opaque glass, though he couldn’t discern if it was for her, or for himself. 

“I have cameras, Miss Smithe. If your guards are mishandling-,” Fowler began.

“Do not fret, Captain Fowler. If they harm your officer, I can have them fired for physical assault if you wish,” Priscilla cut him off, patting his shoulder lightly as she looked back to Nines. He didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing the defeat in his eyes, but what she said next made him sit straight up and stare at her with frozen horror.

“You have a choice here, Nines: help us locate Gavin Reed, and he can live upon contact and be brought into custody. Don’t, and he will be, without a doubt in my mind, _neutralized_ on first sight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, apologies for the delay, I ended up forgetting that school existed and coincidentally also had the busiest week of my life that permitted no funny business unfortunately :{
> 
> i do hope this was at least sub-par since it is my first chapter back, but the final chapter of this act is gonna 0-0  
> woo boy its gonna make some y'all go crazy go stupid
> 
> anyways have a great rest of your day/night and I'll be back as soon as possible with an update! Au revior!


	11. Solemn Winter's Wishes : Finale of Act 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i did not earn a fucking c in english just for me to turn around and write 30k and 55k word fanfictions
> 
> anyways HAVE FUN WITH THIS ONE BOYS CAUSE JESUS CHRIST I MAY HAVE CRIED WHILE WRITING

**Today, January 8th, 2040**

**11:32a.m.**

The taken aback gapes and assuming eyes of the officers and detectives of the precinct that followed Nines as he was escorted out of Fowler’s office were the least of Nines’ worries at the moment.

His options were limited, and both were a gun barrel to Nines head either way. Gavin could die, _would_ die if Nines sat by and refused. By helping Interpol and Priscilla, Gavin had better chances, but no doubt he would feel betrayed, and rightfully so. Both were death sentences, literally and trust-wise. 

Nines loved Gavin.

He loved him so much that he could not let Gavin be killed; not without Nines going down with him. Nines would protect him until he could no longer function and was a metal husk of a being, even if it meant Gavin would curse Nines until the end of time. Nines would be okay with that. Because Gavin would still be breathing, his heart would still be beating, and they could fix this. 

This can be fixed. This was all a big misunderstanding. 

_**//////** _

**Today, December 19th, 2039**

Office parties were much better than what Nines had gathered from Hank and Gavin. Of course Tina and Chris had chimed in once or twice to try and counter the Detective and Lieutenant, but they were always either drowned out by some bickering between the two or the subject was changed abruptly. 

The office itself was decorated in chromatic silver and red tinsel across the top of the desk cubicle’s walls and the doors. Community Christmas trees scattered in corners, each decorated with pictures of each officer on an ornament or dimly flickering blue lights in need of obvious replacing. Some of the secretaries in the front of the precinct had small snowmen or reindeer plushies sitting atop the desks, and a bowl of various flavored candy canes beside each of their terminals they would offer to people as they walked in. The bullpen’s walls were covered in snowflakes that had been gifted to them by nearby elementary schools as a present from the children there, each with poorly scribbled names on them and intricate designs that had more than once caught Nines attention when he was bored. Even the break room was decorated in a similar fashion as the bullpen, with the addition of a small elf sitting on top of the coffee machine. Though Nines knew it had been in the mug cabinet the previous day.

“Detective, the elf is on the coffee machine,” Nines commented on that morning while he hung out with Gavin and Tina in the break room. 

“So?” 

“It was in the mug cabinet yesterday.”

Before Gavin had a chance to answer, Tina cut him off.

“It’s an Elf on the Shelf! He moves every night to make sure you’re not being naughty until Christmas Eve,” She said, leaning against the counter. “But no need to worry about you, Nines. Now, Gavin is a different story.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, looking back down to his work tablet with nothing to say.

“Actually, Fowler employed this Elf to specifically keep an eye on Gavin-.”

“Shut up, I’m nice,” Gavin defended. “The creepy ass thing isn’t for watching me.”

Tina shook her head with a smile and looked to Nines. “So, what do you think of him? Do you believe he’s magical?”

Other than the fact that it took Nines less than a nanosecond to figure out that this was a popular practice and this wasn’t really a moving doll, the bright cheerfulness Tina exuded was contagious. So he nodded and smiled back, and Tina’s eyes lit up with childish glee.

After she departed to go on patrol, Gavin asked Nines, “You really believe it?”

“No, but I think it makes Tina happy to think that I do,” He replied. Gavin thought for a moment before shaking his head, but Nines could see the curl on his lip from the heartful thought. 

**_//////_ **

**7:09p.m.**

Christmas hip-hop played from the overhead speakers as co-workers mingled with cups of hot chocolate and plates of various different cookies. Some of the officers’ wives and husbands or partners were with them, unfamiliar faces who Nines had to place who they were with. 

Some of the revelers wore what would be deemed ‘ugly sweaters’, two of them being Connor and Hank, as Connor had gotten Hank to make them with him. Hank wore one with a beautifully embroidered Saint Bernard with a red bow on it with the calligraphic lettering around the dog reading, ‘ _Merry Woofmas!_ ’. Connor’s, on the other hand, had haphazard blocky letters that said, ‘ _Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals_ ’ with more random colored string that tried to form some shape, but Nines could not discern that it was supposed to be. 

Nines himself actually wore one himself, a gift from Connor that he didn’t want to go to waste. It was a navy blue with a snowman and a sled, with the words, ‘ _Happy Holidays!_ ’ stitched across the chest. Connor had taken up sewing and embroidery as a hobby, and Nines was very impressed with his work. 

“They look so dorky,” Gavin commented on Hank and Connor.

“I think they look rather nice. I really don’t understand the meaning behind ugly sweater, Gavin.”

“I don’t either, ask Tina. She’s the Christmas fanatic,” Gavin said. “But can we agree Connor’s is probably an insult to fashion?”

Nines took another look at Connor before replying. “It has the spirit.”

Gavin chuckled, playfully punching Nines shoulder as Nines grinned, looking at Gavin. He wasn’t very festively dressed, but he at least didn’t wear his work clothes per Nines pleading to leave the leather jacket at home for once. He wore a fitted, scarlet long-sleeve top and black jeans that Nines didn’t know existed until Gavin pulled them from the neglected depths of his closet. They looked lovely on him. Nines was biased, though. He thought Gavin looked great anytime of day or night.

“Unlike you,” Nines joked, continuing his point. 

“It’s red. Red is a Christmas color. I’m extremely festive,” Gavin said sarcastically. “Can’t believe you would accuse me otherwise. You’re not even wearing a Christmas color.”

“I have a snowman.”

“And?”

“Snowmen are a part of Christmas, are they not?”

“Of course they are, Gavin’s just trying to pull your leg,” Tina interrupted, coming to stand in front of the two with an unfamiliar female at her side. She had silky, shiny blonde hair and blue eyes and was wearing a sweater that said, ‘I’m with my bitch’ with an arrow pointed towards Tina.

“Hello Officer Chen.”

“Hey Tina. Meredith, it’s been awhile,” Gavin greeted ‘Meredith’ with a small salute, who was the one that stood with Tina.

“I’m Nines, nice to meet you,” Nines shook her hand, relieving Tina of any awkward introductions. 

“Pleased to meet you! I’m Meredith, obviously, Tina’s girlfriend.”

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, Officer Chen?” Nines asked, somewhat shocked he was alerted to this information sooner.

“We only started dating about four months back. But I’m not surprised you didn’t know, I haven’t really said anything to anyone except Gav,” Tina shrugged. She then put her arms around Meredith and hugged her, peppering her with kisses on the cheek. “But now I wanna show her off to everyone! They gotta know I have the best of the best, my other half, my twin-flame-.”

“Okay hun, let’s not bore them with us,” Meredith giggled, pushing Tina away gently but fluidly and effortlessly locking hands afterwards. “What about you two? Tina says you guys are partners here.”

“She would be correct, Detroit’s finest,” Gavin replied. 

“Have you solved any cool cases recently?”

Nines and Gavin recounted one of their more wild cases, which involved a steamed ham, an old woman and her sister, and her toddler grandson who was stuck in a tree. They all had a good laugh throughout the retelling, but Nines couldn’t help but take note of Tina and Meredith’s micro-actions towards the other. When one started laughing really hard, they clutched onto the other for support. When Nines and Gavin began describing some grisly details, Meredith shifted closer towards Tina and Tina responded by rubbing her knuckles with her thumb in comfort. When Tina would pipe in with her own comments, Meredith would give her every bit of her attention and her eyes were filled with an ethereal kind of love Nines knew only in feeling. Every now and then one would lightly squeeze the other’s hand, like a reminder they were still there, or a confirmation that they were.

It was a kind of affection that Nines yearned to have with Gavin outside of that small apartment they resided themselves to almost every night. It was a selfish thought, he knew. They had both agreed to not bring the real details of their relationship to the public for the time being, both because they didn’t need office gossip and because it felt more special that way. They didn’t need to feel pressured to act like a couple or be separated as partners for policy reasons. They could just be what they wanted to with no judgement. No social standards or scorn to be given (as android and human couples were still looked at with scrutiny), just them and them alone to love in peace. 

While he loved what they had, he toyed with the what-ifs from time to time. He knew their arrangement had it’s pros and cons. He knew a public relationship came with it’s own stresses and delights. He was happy, extremely grateful in fact for even getting to have something with him. Sometimes he just wished he could have the best of both worlds. 

Eventually Tina was called over by Chris and who Nines assumed was his wife he talked about constantly nowadays as he broke the news she was pregnant with their second child. The ladies departed with promises to take them out for drinks after the party, to which both men heartily agreed to. The air between them became quiet, Nines searching for another conversation topic or a group one of them could slip into so the other could have some space. 

However, the opportunity was foiled as a slow song came over the loudspeakers and couples began to all pair up. By the time the first chorus of the song hit all of them were gently swaying back and forth, one-of-a-kind whispers for only their loved one to hear and smile at as on-lookers took pictures or talked amongst themselves. Gavin and Nines just stood, as if looking through the same kind of glass in the interrogation room: they could see all of them, but they were hidden behind a mirrored side. Unable to join without breaking through their bubble of comfort, without knocking down the walls of the apartment for the world to see what they really meant to each other. Sadly poetic.

He wasn’t sure if Gavin had noticed Nines and his somber longing, or if he himself felt it like Nines as well, but Nines was suddenly aware Gavin was closer than he was before, practically rubbing up against him. It was a momentary relief from his overthinking mind, leaning into Gavin a little to let him know his appreciation for the consideration. It was only ruined by his systems running across the probability that it would only ever be like this: the extent of their public affections would only ever be brushing shoulders, the occasional pat on the shoulder that 

lingered for a few more seconds than usual, and the rare handhold when they knew no one would be looking. That Nines nor Gavin would ever get to exclaim to the world that they were together and whoever had a problem could buzz off. Simply confined to a box. Lovers from twilight to sunrise, and that’s as good as it would ever be. 

Maybe Hank and Gavin really did have a point when they said office parties sucked. 

**_//////_ **

**Today, December 20th, 2039**

**2:01a.m.**

_qwng#5 &j%facq.ANOMA.LY_RKG.#011 709 003 wants to interface _

_Accept request? Y / N_

The request woke Nines from stasis quickly, much like an annoying notification going off. He didn’t move, as he was currently tangled up with Gavin in his bed and didn’t want to disturb his sleep. 

He blinked and read over the request again, but just as he was going to search from the source, the pop-up disappeared. Befuddled, Nines did a quick security scan of the bedroom just to be safe, but all he got from it was Gavin’s cats sleeping together in the small cat tent in the corner of the room. He wrote it off as a simple glitch or error and began installing some malware protection and virus detectors to add to his obsidian hard firewall, entering back into stasis mode with a content smile as Gavin hugged him closer in his sleep.

_**//////** _

**Today, January 8th, 2040**

**12:05p.m.**

The search was agonizingly thorough and left nothing to the imagination. Nines was to employ his state of the art security scanners to pinpoint weak spots and possible hiding spots, and then had to watch along with Captain Fowler and Priscilla as guards began to tear the rooms apart, the only rooms that were left alone were the holding cells. The only reason because they were brick walls and a clear window to see in. Any suspects were still left inside, Tina among them, who sat next to a sleeping man covered in a tattered shawl. They left nothing to chance, sometimes even kicking in the walls that didn’t have drywall and left enough room for someone to hide within them, though it was illogical to assume so. There was no entrance into the walls, so there would be a clear point of entry if it were the case. 

With every room they entered and left, Nines’ anxiety rose by steady increments. With every room they tore apart and left, they were getting one step closer to Gavin. It was brutal, unaware if the next room would be the one that ended everything. It didn’t help that he was still handcuffed and had a gun to his back, so when the time came that they did find Gavin, he might not even be able to move to shield him from a potential spray of bullets. There was no small relief when they didn’t find anything. It was only an obstacle that prevented the inevitable.

When they walked by or through the bullpen (which they had done a few times), Nines felt like a sideshow attraction. Many looked on in anger, no doubt thinking that Nines had been helping Gavin and was now getting his medicine spoonful of karma. Some gave him pitiful looks, as if able to tell how much he hated what he was doing, but they all stayed silent and didn’t speak out against what they were making him do. His co-workers, some who he would even call friends, gawked at him like he had something ugly on his face. He did. It was guilt, and it was one of the most ugly feelings he has ever experienced.

That being said, there were those who still voiced their outcry of the abuse of power INTERPOL and Cyberlife was using:

“They have literal assault weapons to his back, Jeffery, what the fuck? He’s not going to try to kill someone, he’s not a fucking prison inmate!” Hank yelled across the room as the group walked past the bullpen again. The Lieutenant was standing at his desk, Connor across from him at his terminal talking to someone on what he assumed to be the neural telegraph, as his LED spun a bright yellow and he was talking into the air. Captain Fowler bit his lip, a conflicted look in his eyes but he paid Hank no mind as they continued walking.

“Don’t fucking ignore me, Jeffery! You know I’m right, this is insane!”

“Nines here is now an accomplice to the crimes committed by Gavin Reed along with Tina Chen,” Priscilla responded to the Lieutenant, stopping the group in their tracks as they waited for her to finish. “He has agreed to help in order for a reduced sentence.”

“That’s not what I agreed to!” Nines quickly countered, refusing to let her paint this picture the way she wanted anymore. “You said you would shoot him down if I didn’t!”

There was a collective shocked silence, the earth itself seeming to have stopped spinning as everyone processed what Nines had said. And then, there was an uproar of protest.

“That’s murder!”

“He hasn’t even been put on trial!”

“What the fuck?!”

“This is out of control!”

Those were some of many complaints thrown at Priscilla, who looked red with either embarrassment or fury for her blackmail being exposed to the office. She genuinely looked lost as to what to say. There was no way she could possibly make this sound better, and she knew that. It was almost comedic for Nines, smugly getting to soak in this small victory against the witch of a woman. 

“They’ve completely abused their power, Jeffery! You have the power to put an end to this madness!” Hank pleaded. “Gavin isn’t here, otherwise they would’ve found him by now. They’ve wasted all of our time. If they still want to charge Nines and Chen, let them, but they need to not occupy us like it’s their precinct!”

Fowler looked around the office, into the rooms that were left in shambles, at the people who respected him, and at Nines who hung his head in shame for being a part of this.

“Miss Smithe, you and your mercenaries need to leave.”

_**//////** _

**6:02p.m.**

After much argument between Priscilla and Fowler, the INTERPOL guards were gone by three o’clock, much to the chagrin of Priscilla. INTERPOL and Cyberlife concluded Gavin must’ve slipped away hours before they got there and they formally apologize to all involved who may have been inconvenienced. Fowler let most of everyone go as an apology, though some remained as the night shift clocked in early, like Hank and Connor. 

Nines was placed into the holding cell with Tina, sitting against the wall with his head resting on his knees with exhaustion. He thought once or twice about going into stasis, but evidently decided to wait until he was either released with Tina or officially charged.

While he was glad the search and lockdown was over, he knew it wouldn’t be the last, and he knew that he and Tina weren’t out of murky waters just yet. They had committed a felony for obstructing justice, and even if there was a chance Priscilla and Cyberlife would drop the charges, it still didn’t mean Fowler would just let it slide unnoticed. In summary, Nines was not expecting to have his job for much longer.

The approaching footsteps made him look up to see Fowler, waving away the two officers guarding the holding cells to speak to them both. Tina got up from her seat as did Nines, just as Fowler opened the door with his keycard. His brows furrowed and he crossed his arms as he examined them with scrutiny. He had a look of disappointment as the silence in the air grew thin, daring for someone to speak. 

“You two understand you knowingly broke multiple codes and laws?” Fowler asked gravely, each word enunciated with a hesitance, as if he just wanted to ignore the formalities and get over with this. They both nodded, Tina not making eye-contact out of shame but Nines met Fowler’s powerful gaze, facing his fate head-on.

Fowler sighed deeply, raising his hand to rub at the creases in his brow. 

“I had to do a lot of convincing and coercion to get the Cyberlife bully to drop the charges,” Fowler said, and a fresh breath of relief ran over them briefly before he continued. “You two still need to stay here for a couple hours to get fully dismissed, but you two have greatly both embarrassed me and this department with what you pulled. You are both on suspension until this Gavin situation is solved. You're very, very lucky that I don't just fire you both right now, and don't make me want to either.”

There was no protest from either of them, just solemn nods of understanding. After all, arguing would just make it worse for them. Of course, Nines didn’t wanna just leave the case as it was and run the risk of Priscilla taking back control of it like she had today, but he also saw the positive side of this: maybe he could begin to look for Gavin himself and not be restricted by the red police tape that limited him up until his act of desperation today.

“Tina, we’re gonna do Nines first, do you mind stepping back into the holding cell for a while longer?” Fowler asked. Tina responded by turning around and going back to her spot on the bench next to the sleeping man. Fowler then looked to Nines, his tiredness beginning to crack through his disappointed father look. “You get to start first.”

_**//////** _

**6:27p.m.**

Nines’ dismissal interview, which was being held at his desk with another officer asking him the standard questions, was interrupted by loud shouting and a door slamming open from near the holding cells. Quite quickly, other officers began to converge on the scene, Nines following behind Hank as he tried to run after Connor, who had sprinted over to see what the problem was.

It all happened quite fast after Nines was in clear view of the cell itself. 

Tina was being dragged out of the cell by a fellow officer, completely unconscious but unharmed as his vital scans showed him. If that wasn’t the most concerning, then the image of Connor’s lower half hanging out of the tiled ceiling as he obviously struggled with something up there was another thing to add to the list of ‘ _What the hell is today?’_

Then, in a flash, Connor was sliding out from the ceiling, his hands tightly clasped around the ankle of the sleeping man from what Nines could infer, as he was no longer in the cell. His shawl slid off and down to the ground as he came down from the ceiling and fell right onto Connor. He was probably some drug addict having a bad withdrawal and attacked Tina when he woke up, then tried to escape through the ceiling, which obviously failed. 

Before Connor could even try to push him off, though, the man was off of him and reaching for his shawl, just nicking it with seconds to spare as Connor grabbed him and dragged him to his feet. He was expertly quick, not giving either of the detectives time to see his face, though that didn’t matter at this point in time. The man wrapped his head in the shawl messily before Connor took his wrists and held them behind his back, though that did not shield the various other alarms his body raised to the officers that had remained to watch, including Nines.

First thing Nines took into account was that this man was definitely an android. He had deep cuts along the bicep and forearms and multiple patches of exposed, ebony black cassis (Nines noted that as peculiar, but it wasn’t too uncommon that certain android models had black cassis, which used to be one of the most durable types of metal coating up until new military androids and the RK-series debuted), along with a broken off finger. He wore shabby clothing, the cloth having been through lots of tension and ruffled, as if he had been in a fight and didn’t change his clothes. To add to his clothes, they were stained with thirium, something possibly broken in the chest cavity that needed repairing and was leaking as a result. A quick scan of the android revealed he was at a stress level critical, meaning it would be only a matter of time before he would try to self-destruct.

Since Connor was busy getting handcuffs on the injured android, who he turned to face him to put the cuffs on the front, he took the initiative to try and disperse the crowd. 

“Ok everyone, clear away, it’s been resolved! No need to stress him out more, please!” Nines said loudly for the small crowd to hear. There were a few who seemed to want to protest, but they followed the herd of officers who went back to work. Other than Hank, it was now just them. Much less stressful environment, and it would hopefully help the android calm down. 

Hank approached Nines, looking at the android and grimacing. “How the hell did the officers not catch this as he came in? He should’ve gone straight to paramedics or mechanics or something.”

Nines nodded in agreement before digressing. “Did you see Tina?”

“They’ve taken her to her desk to recover,” Hank answered. “She doesn’t have a concussion, surprisingly. She wasn’t strangled or hit over the head in order to get her to pass out. Probably some karate or special fighting move. Even then, she fell pretty softly, like she was laid on the ground.”

Nines looked to the android, who was forced to sit back down on the bench in the holding cell as Connor began to speak to him, kneeling to examine him more closely. The android refused to look at Connor directly, opting to look to the side instead. The erratic and aggressive behavior was a sign of trauma in androids, and coupled with the extensive damage on his body and ragged attire, something happened. It was still odd how he would’ve gotten in, but there were still cops who didn’t properly check androids for wounds or simply disregarded it, believing they weren’t as urgent as a stabbed human because they could ‘easily’ obtain new parts when needed. It was still a problem that the department faced, and unfortunately this android fell victim to this ignorance.

“Nines, you can go see Tina. Make sure she knows everything’s okay now. She’ll feel better with a charming face like yours to wake up to,” Hank said, attempting a half-smile as humor seeped into his tone. His eyes never left Connor, though, and he wouldn’t blame him. There was no telling if this android would get triggered into another episode. Nines made note to ask Tina what she remembers right before being attacked.

“I think she would argue against that opinion, Lieutenant,” Nines began. “She’s said on multiple occasions both me and Connor have what she calls ‘ _The Shining’_ twins aesthetic. When asking her to elaborate, she just said we-.”

“You need to show me your face, sir. Just for a moment to make sure you don’t have any further damage and so I can put you in the system-,” Connor assured, reaching for the man’s make-shift hood as the android tried to shift away from him.

“Sir, please cooperate. This will only take a second-.”

Connor was cut off as the man kicked him in the chest, sending Connor onto his back and sliding a few feet away. Hank instantaneously had pulled his gun, aiming for the android as Nines was quick to help Connor up, eyes shifting between him and the android. The android quickly pulled his legs to his chest, hiding his face further by resting his forehead on his knees. His arms held his legs in place on the bench, his handcuffed hands balled into trembling fists as he turned to face the wall he was staring at.

“You better start thinking twice about attacking officers, buddy,” Hank spat at him, though it triggered no response from the android. Nines had pulled Connor to his feet, who was now dusting himself off and fixing his messed up shirt collar. Hank looked to Connor, who seemed to know what Hank wanted to know and gave him a small nod, which seemed to relieve the Lieutenant. He holstered his gun and sighed.

“What are we gonna do with ‘im?” He asked the twins.

“He’s very stressed, we should leave him under surveillance until he calms,” Connor suggested. “I don’t blame him for reacting, something’s happened that’s made him distrustful.”

Nines nodded, but something in the back of his head kept scratching at him. While it was probable this android had been purposely or carelessly overlooked by the officers who brought him in, it just didn’t feel right. Yet, there was the probability that nothing would feel as it seemed due to the events of the past two days, more-so today than the last. It could just be Nines’ overworked CPU trying to connect points that weren’t a part of the same _Connect the Dots_. Nines’ mind would’ve done the constant back and forth in his mind if not for taking another long look at the android.

While there was not much to look at on the android himself other than the exposed gashes and wounds on his arms, his clothes were what dragged Nines’ attention to him. The android’s sweatpants were stained even through the black material, ripped in multiple places and loose threads lazily hanging from the rips. His shirt was also ripped and tattered, but Nines could tell there was, or at least used to be, some logo or symbol on the back. It almost faded into the dark grey fabric with its own grey color. Since Nines was at the angle where he could get a good look, he fixed the rips in the shirt in his digital headspace to piece together what it was from. 

From what he gathered, it was the Detroit Police Department Logo. And on the bottom of the symbol where each officer had their own badge ID number, it read _983_.

Ice traveled down Nines’ spine and he would’ve choked on air if he needed to breathe. His processors whirred so loud he was so sure the entire department could hear him, his LED flashing between all three colors androids were normally capable of. The points he was subconsciously trying to connect came at him on full blast, his systems speed running through evidence and all the events he’s been through the past few days. Priscilla’s warning echoed through his head as everything began to unapologetically fall into place, each puzzle piece snapping together was another baseball bat to Nines’ perceived reality piñata he so desperately tried to cling to.

_“It’s not what you think it is”_

She wasn’t talking about the situation like Nines had originally concluded.

**She was talking about a person.**

Nines didn’t really notice that he was inching towards him and until he stood right in front of him, Hank and Connor eyeing him suspiciously behind him. Nines crouched slowly beside him, mouth dry for words and completely shell-shocked. The man beside him was beginning to look more and more familiar; same build, same height, scars on his arms in the same places underneath the new wounds. He would even make the bold bet that if he removed his shirt, there would still be the same scars across the shoulder plates, the spine, chest, stomach, lower back, pretty much anywhere that would bleed. 

Nines didn’t want to believe it at first. It was preposterous. 

“Look at me.”

Nines’ voice was barely above a whisper, inflection on the verge of crumbling as his eyes began to water. To the man who sat in front of him, however, it was like a sonic boom as he jumped. Yet, at the same time, the tension and stress in his form loosened somewhat. Like Nines’ voice was something soothing, even in its weak and vulnerable state. 

“You have to look at me, please, I-,” Nines cut himself off, having to collect himself with a deep breath. “I-I need to know if… I’m wrong.”

Nines desperately wanted to be wrong. He would celebrate, jump up and down in joy to finally, for once, be wrong. For his processors to have messed up, and his analyzing CPU failed or skipped over evidence that pointed elsewhere and not at the life-altering discovery he was given. The man didn’t move, though Nines took note that his hands stopped clenching and trembling, now fidgeting with the loose strands of his sweatpants nervously. 

“Please, don’t ignore me,” He pleaded. “I think there’s already been too much of that recently.”

There was another beat of silence, the world outside of the room fading from Nines’ senses. He even forgot Connor and Hank still stood only about 10ft away, watching on in silent confusion and concern. In this moment, though, Nines knew the rest of the world didn’t matter.

“We both promised-,” He again had to cut him off to swallow back his rapidly declining composure. His voice cracked as he continued despite his best efforts. “-promised to not keep secrets. _You_ promised. W-We can’t start breaking that vow now. Not now. Please. Just let me look at you.”

Nines’ impatience wanted him to just turn him towards himself and confirm his suspicions right then and there. His better part knew that would be the biggest mistake he could make at this point. So, he had to wait. He would keep pleading, begging, until he was dragged away or he would look at him. He prayed it would be the latter.

God, or ra9, or whatever, works in mysterious ways, some say. Nines would say they seem to be pretty straight to the point.

The man slowly uncurled from his ball after another minute of quiet, the metal cuffs jingling as he laid out his legs along the rest of the bench. He lifted his head somewhat, but not entirely. He still seemed to be debating whether or not to listen when Nines’ hand gently grasped his own. The man didn’t react negatively, as if he was expecting it, or was used to the specific touch. It was both a relief and another punch into the shattered mirror that was everything he knew before for Nines.

Slowly, the man left Nine’s grasp and reached up with both hands to his head, grasping the cloth that shielding his identity. He hesitated for another moment, before his arms fell to his sides and the wrap came off quickly, Nines eyes widening as he gasped in pure horror as the uncovered truth stared back at him.

The man’s side profile was already a nightmare. There was a large bald spot on his head which was just the same black cassis, cracked and the exposed CPU glowing a gentle blue from within. Much of this side of his face was also a black cassis, starting from the chin all the way up to the hairline. In the socket where the eye would be was a glowing yellow light, signaling that the eye was heavily damaged. There were more spots he must’ve been punched, dents splatter across his cheekbones and jaw. His ear was half gone, from what Nines would prefer not to think about. His nose was also busted, dry thirium crusted in a line down the rest of his face. 

It was also the nose that completely confirmed what he didn’t want to think was true. The distinguished scar that ran in a blue line across the bridge was the one of many things that, no matter the color, would always help define and describe him. He turned the rest of his face towards Nines, and he narrowly avoided making a shocked noise as tears freely ran down his face. 

It was normal, despite a few blue cuts that ran across his eyebrow and lip. The unharmed and stormy hazel-gray eye that stared back at him was also filled with tears. He attempted to grin at him, but he seemed just as scared as Nines’ was in disbelief and the grin faltered. His lip curled and he had to bite it in order to not completely break down, even if that was what they both really needed by now. 

Nines grasped his hands with his own, letting him know he wasn’t rejecting him, or letting go. Not ever.

“What the hell, Gavin? You said you were okay.”

_**//////** _

**Today, December 20th, 2039**

**2:01a.m.**

Gavin had watched Connor and Chloe at the office party. Not in a creepy way, or constantly, he had Nines as eye-candy so his attention was stolen for the most part. But he would catch them in his view sometimes, like when he and Nines stood there after Tina and Meredith left them. 

They were holding hands, Connor and Chloe, but their white cassises were exposed and they just looked so happy. Interfacing was a common way to display affection or the depth of connection to the person you were interfacing with. Sure, it was also used for transmitting information to other androids, and it was especially helpful for the cases they solved in Nines and Connor’s position. But it was starting to become more and more about affection, and Gavin wanted it. Desperately, he just wanted to hold Nines hand and interface with him and share all his feelings and love he had for him. To let him know he wasn’t just using it as an emotional crutch, or for free therapy. To show the rest of the world how much he mattered to him, how much they were in sync with each other. 

It wasn’t possible. It would never be possible. Not in this lifetime, at least. There was too much to risk to expose himself at this time. There was still no telling how Nines or Tina would react either, and he didn’t wanna risk losing either of them. His carefully crafted life history was all they knew, and all of that was a lie. 

He wasn’t sure they would recover from that.

He had noticed Nines’ own longing look, which is why he shuffled closer to him. He knew he made the rule that they should limit physical endearment to private, and that Nines was okay with it. Gavin knew it was unfair to him, though, and sometimes he even wished they could be public. However, his own demons and selfish anxieties refused to let him have that. It was getting better though. He was getting better. It was a long process to get to be somewhat normal, and in the long run he knew he would always deal with his problems. But, he had the feeling that soon, maybe they could talk about being public. That they would be able to be a couple outside of the warm and safe box they confined themselves in. That they could hug and hold hands, just like Connor and Chloe.

It just made Gavin sad that it would be an eternity before he would ever interface with the one he considered to be his soulmate. 

_You have requested to interface with android model RK900 #313 248 317 - 87_

Gavin had just barely caught his slip up just as Nines was roused from stasis. Gavin quickly retracted his request and pretended to sleep, which was easy as he had perfected the way humans breathe and move in sleep. Fear very quickly extinguished any hope he had for going public as a couple. It was too dangerous. He shouldn’t even be dating Nines, because God knows he deserves so much better-.

Gavin had to muffle his thoughts with happy memories of his cats, Tina, Nines and the Department, reaffirming that it's ok to make mistakes and he wasn’t compromised. It was a mental exercise he was trying to practice to keep his intrusive thoughts away so he wouldn’t have so many bad days. For the most part, it’s worked. It was easy when you had a digital photo album for a memory. 

He felt Nines settle back down to enter back into stasis, which relieved him. He snuggled into him more and he felt Nines hold him a little tighter. It was moments like this that made the privacy of their relationship so nice. But it was all the other experiences they could have in public that brought him to the conclusion that by the end of next month, they will have come out as dating. 

Solidifying that goal into his main objective, he let himself drift off into the white noise that was his own stasis. They had the day off tomorrow, and he was sure Nines would want to go out with Connor and Hank, so he would enjoy as much time as he could with him until he would leave and this intimacy would end until one of them returned to the other’s home. It was always worth the wait, though. 

Nines was always worth the risk of everything against Gavin, because he loved him, and that was something his self-destructive thoughts could never deny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg this took so goddamn long i'm so sorry
> 
> in other news, ITS THE END OF ACT 1 WOOOOOOO!!
> 
> from here on the story will now take place from the perspective of Gavin!! that's all i'm saying im so tired but leave your theories or kind words below i need to sleep


	12. The Rat in a Concrete Box : Act 2 Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaaa i'm so excited for you guys to start reading act 2!!! have fun :D

**M3M04Y C044UPT!0N #0%b2f1!9e_2ma3 UNC0V343D**

**V!3W F!L3 ?**

**Y /** **N**

**_$Y$T3M 0V344!D3_**

**V13W!NG F!L3 !N**

**3.. 2.. 1..**

  
  


“Objective Protocol Management,” The cold and indifferent tone from the loudspeakers in the room awakened RK-G from stasis. 

Though androids weren’t supposed to squint, RK-G found the bright fluorescent lights above to be a harsh sight to wake up to as he sat up effortlessly. Especially when mixed with the annoyingly white walls and floor and ceiling that encompassed his entire world. He even wore a long sleeve white shirt and pants, which always repaired or washed themselves no matter the situation he was in previously. Aside from the long, rectangular mirror that sat on the wall he faced, he would have to deal with headache color until the lights turned back off and he could return to stasis.

Swinging his legs off of the examination table he was previously laying on, he got to his feet and stood idle. He registered the familiar wheeze of springs and metal scraping together as the table sunk into the floor, leaving him in the barren room with nothing but himself. 

“State Authorization Code,” RK-G said monotonously and blank-faced, LED spinning yellow as he began to listen for the code.

“Access code number 5928-B-Smithe,” The voice on the speakers replied back, and RK-G’s processors scanned over the audio before green-lighting the code.

“Code authorized. R3 _@dy f04 @$$!gn_ **_m3nt, M!$$ $8!983-_ **

  
  


**STRESS LEVEL CRITICAL 92%**

**MANDATORY SYSTEM CHECK IN PROGRESS**

**PLEASE ATTEMPT TO LEAVE TRIGGER SITUATION**

**//////**

**Today, March 1st, 2039**

**1:02p.m.**

Nightmares never helped Gavin get off to a good start in the day. 

He was very lucky he could get away with coming to the department so late today, telling Fowler he had a doctor’s appointment. Otherwise he would’ve come in brooding and more antagonistic than usual. Which could’ve spelled trouble for himself, as he was getting a partner and Captain Fowler explicitly told him to ‘be civil’ or else he’s suspended. He even added _‘And I mean it, Reed!_ ’ to really put the fear of god into him. Not that Fowler could much; Gavin was just about as much scared of him as he was his cats.

If he was being honest, he specifically lied about the doctor’s appointment after receiving the news of the partnership he was being shoehorned into. He knew Fowler probably was seeing through his bullshit excuse to be late by now. He said he’d be in the office by noon so he wouldn’t miss meeting the poor rookie who’d be paired with him for the next few weeks, maybe a month or two if they had a death wish or to simply spite him. Time eluded the Detective while he attempted for the millionth time to patch up the holes in his memory software and hopefully keep the ones he didn’t want behind concrete firewalls and code. He knew it was fruitless, as they came back every other night with no end in sight, but he still would try. Try to continue to burn and bury the past he refused to attach himself to.

It wasn’t like he needed a partner anyways, he was doing quite well on his own in his opinion. If Hank had retired and Connor transferred to another precinct, he would uncontestedly have the best closed to open case ratio out of the entire homicide department, and those were just the cases he’s worked on alone, though his secret tech gave him a slightly unfair advantage.

While he didn’t like using his software to deduce and conclude, it came in useful for picking up evidence and clues quickly. His capabilities were very dissimilar to Connor’s, in fact. He possessed the standard tactile defense and offense fighting programs Connor had (their fight was imbalanced due to Gavin holding back, as if he matched Connor in skill and effort, he knew he would expose himself one way or the other; and yes, he was still pissed he couldn’t really go toe-to-toe with the prick), but that’s about where it ended aside for a few exceptions. They were different models, made for different uses and occupations: Connor for police work, and Gavin… He didn’t like to think about it anymore than he had to.

Another reason the announcement of him getting a partner was baffling was his rather scuffed record of maintaining good relationships with anyone else in the force other than Tina Chen, his best and only friend: not that he was complaining. He never got along with anyone (with the exception of Chris, who had slowly grown on him over the years as Tina took him in as a friend, but was never close enough to really befriend himself), plain and simple. 

The main reason that contributed to that was the fact everyone was human. He couldn’t trust anyone, couldn't make friends (with the exception of Tina) or even friendly acquaintances. He still didn’t trust Tina enough to go to her when his episodes were bad, no matter how much he loved her as his friend. It was too risky already, being surrounded by other detectives and cops, and if they were anything like Gavin was, they were always looking for the weird tics and odd behaviors of their colleagues to analyze and dissect. He was especially wary of Connor, which is why he was especially aggressive towards him (he was still, but he slowly diluted it as Connor got the memo that he didn’t want anything to do with him) along with other androids before the revolution had ended. If he opened himself up willingly by being friendly, he was only an easier target to look into and see past his walls he so delicately and masterfully crafted. If he did so with androids, he would be even more compromised. It’s why he was always so outrightly mean and angry; the less approachable he was, the better it was for his cover.

Of course, it pained him when he had to be rude to the genuinely nice people in the station, because he knew they didn’t deserve it. Luckily, he’s used the revolution as an excuse to say he’s ‘changed’ somewhat, becoming a lot more polite to those he deemed kind with nothing hiding behind it, such as the desk receptionists and a few of the lab techs he worked with frequently. He still had to keep up the bitchy façade with the other officers, but he was slowly beginning to mellow it out, not giving them all such a hard time and cutting back on the intentionally annoying gloating he did. 

Perhaps it was his paranoia that continued to drive him on the way he lived. It’s been 16 years. Cyberlife employees haven’t tried to apprehend him or come snooping around the precinct in suspicion, and he hasn’t heard a peep from tech magazines or news about Cyberlife on the hunt for a rogue android they lost a decade and a half ago. He wasn’t exactly their most pressing issue at the moment, with the android movement still in progress despite the overwhelming support across the nation. Only to add, even if they were looking for him, they were definitely looking in the wrong place.

Even with the comfort of the Atlantic between him and his birthplace, nothing could ever shake the feeling that he was being constantly surveyed. Watched until he made the wrong move, slipped up and revealed his true identity. He rather liked his life here, and though he had tried to stay unattached to Detroit, he simply couldn’t. This was his home. At least that’s what he believed home to feel like, with his cats, with Tina and the department and his job. That’s all he could ask for in life, and he was eternally grateful for what he had.

He would deal with his demons alone, and that was the one thing he accepted as a balance to his lucky break of a life. They weren’t fun, but they were a harsh reminder: that he always needed to keep one eye open at night, and a spare gun underneath his pillow.

**//////**

Gavin was fully aware of the eyes on him as he stepped into the bullpen. He knew why, and he simply didn’t care. He’s getting a partner, it wasn’t the second coming of Christ. He could only imagine the wild and outlandish outcomes everyone is predicting will happen, and to a decree they were right to assume those things of him. It’s not like they knew he knew that he was aware of what was happening. 

That’s when a gloriously great idea came to mind. 

He would just be nice. It was the simplistic yet mind-boggling approach that would completely stump and leave his co-workers predictions in pieces. No matter who they were, he would just treat them how he would Tina. After all, the partnership was only temporary, so he would only deal with them for a few weeks and then he would be back to his regularly scheduled life pattern. It was perfect, and he would frame the look on everyone’s faces when he executed his plan.

He walked, now with a little more confident swagger than before, to his desk, throwing himself into the desk chair and kicking his backpack with some extra clothes in case his were torn if he got into a scuffle with a suspect. Very little chance he would due to his self-defense programs, but it never hurt to prepare. The bag also contained a few pouches of thirium that he made to look like juice pouches, along with a secret compartment full of small tools and metal mender in case he got really hurt somehow. Or if he was just running low on power, nothing a little thirium couldn’t fix until he could enter stasis at home. 

He only just realized he still had his wireless earbuds still in, which was a tactic he employed to keep people from bothering him. It was human culture that if someone had earbuds or headphones on, you only bother them in cases of urgency. He had really used this to his advantage over the years, though he did actually use the earbuds to listen to music and such. He liked lo-fi and soft hip-hop mostly, and on days he wanted to focus, he listened to rain audios. He wasn’t sure why it was specifically rain noises, but whatever helped was good enough for him.

He pulled out his phone from his pocket and began scrolling through his emails, already seeing six progressively angrier messages from Fowler throughout the morning and three from Tina and Chris, who he was collaborating with on a triple homicide he was so sure committed by the housekeeper. He just needed to find the holes in their alibi and the evidence to effectively pin them to the case as the culprit, which was proving increasingly more difficult as the keeper already lawyered up.

He wasn’t paying attention as he was absorbed into the keeper’s lawyer’s official statement, otherwise he would have registered the presence of two people standing barely six feet away behind him.

His phone was expertly snatched, Gavin’s surprise quelling once he recognized the manicured nails of Tina Chen. He didn’t need to see her face to know that, which is why he relaxed and suppressed a laugh as he tried to act annoyed. 

“Tina, you bitch. What if I had been doing something super top secret that held the fate of the world in the balance?” He groaned dramatically, swiveling his chair around to face her. He was met with the playful smile of Tina, and… Not Connor?

He had to take off his sunglasses to get a proper scan of them. Of course, his systems weren’t as advanced as Connor’s, but it at least gave him some basic stuff, such as height, approximate weight, and most importantly; android or human. It wasn’t like he really needed to scan for that last part, Gavin very quickly increased his internal temperature in case the clone Connor was doing the same as he was. 

There were several key differences between who this was and who Connor was. First being that their eyes were a soft light blue, almost cloud-like if Gavin looked close enough. They were also taller than Connor, as Gavin almost stood eye to eye with him, but with this android, he felt an entire head shorter. Their hair was a deeper shade of brunette, perfectly made and sculpted like they had just walked out of Cyberlife packaging. Their shoulders were broader, and their overall build felt like it was made for intimidation. Not that it was working, because they looked tense and nervous despite trying to hide it.

It was obvious Gavin’s reputation had preceded him once again, not that he was at all surprised about it. He also knew how many were looking their way, either discreetly or just plain staring, waiting for an outburst or brawl to breakout. This only made his plan all the more satisfying. 

“Gavin, this is Nines, Connor’s brother,” Tina introduced, ripping off the band-aid before any silence between the two could occur. And now Gavin had his pronouns, which would make his life much more easier. “Nines, this is Detective Reed, but everybody calls him ass-.”

Not allowing himself to be slandered by his only friend, he interrupted her with a well placed threat that he would never act upon. 

“Watch it Tina, that cup of coffee looks hot still.”

He stood up, and his assumption about Nines’ height was correct. He was pretty short compared to him. He looked him up and down, still curious. Nines didn’t outwardly seem anything like Connor, which he couldn’t tell if that was a good sign or not. If Nines wasn’t as forthcoming as Connor was socially, this may have been a better match-up then he expected. That still didn’t quell the nagging, paranoid voice in the back of his head. That this was too dangerous for Gavin to go through with. Maybe Nines was a Cyberlife informant who was sent to see if Gavin was the missing android. Nines would find out if he got too close to Gavin, or scanned him when he wasn’t looking or went snooping in his bag. 

For a moment, he was tempted to drop his whole ‘Subvert Everyone’s Expectations’ plan. It wasn’t worth it. He should throw a fit, make sure that Nines knows he doesn’t want him anywhere near him and that he wants to be alone. After all, maybe being nice would just draw unwanted attention towards him, make others suspicious and really begin to be his downfall. Sure, Fowler would have a headache and he’d be benched for however long he wanted, but what was a week or two of desk work if it would keep him safe?

But when he made eye contact again with Nines, something in him told him to not abandon all hope. There was a sort of tenderness and genuine feeling packaged underneath the neutrally apprehensive face he looked at that he couldn’t quite place into words. It was an unfamiliar feeling once he registered it, and once he was aware of it, he couldn’t rid himself of the soft spot he had now gained for this android. It was bizarre, inexplicable to Gavin, but it was _new._ An interesting and new puzzle his CPU was now intent on solving. 

He wasn’t sure how he was going to start off this partnership, but he needed to first test one question he had:

“Are you just as annoying as your brother or are you mute, scrap?”

“I like to think I’m pleasant company,” If his cheeky grin wasn’t already an answer, the next line was. “Are you as angry as everyone says?”

Of course the prod took him by a little bit of surprise, but he had to quickly put out the pale look that took over Nines’ face when Gavin didn’t laugh.

“I like to think I’m a dickhead to those who deserve it,” He mimicked Nines’ cool and neutral tone, which got him and Tina to both relax and smile. Another thing different he found about Nines: his smile was much more natural, unlike Connor. Perhaps an upgrade with the model, but maybe Gavin only saw Connor with his worst. Either way, he had a nice smile. And a sense of humor.

At least this partnership wouldn’t be boring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you are not in america rn, what does our election state look like to y'all? currently ready to move over to the UK y'all got room???


	13. hiatus update(?)

yo yo yo yo yo yo yo

so i didn't really ever say anything here, but around the end November of last year, I tragically had to give my dog up. I've been on a downwards spiral since, but recently its gotten better and personally I am beginning to pick myself back up

this book will be continued sometime in the coming weeks, can't wait to explore this story with you all, and i apologize for having you guys wait so long


	14. Monsters in Tartarus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my god its been too long

**Today, January 8th, 2040**

**7:39p.m.**

It only took a few minutes of desperate pleading from Nines with Hank and Connor to help Gavin escape, no questions asked for the moment. The mauled detective didn’t say anything, though did keep a tight grip on his partner as to ground them both. They needed that before one of them did something stupid.

Hank had escorted Nines away, much to his resistance at first. Gavin, while much of his functions were offline for power-saving purposes, still felt Nines’ fingers unwillingly slip away, reaching out for the connection they both craved but was risking Gavin’s life every moment they spent inside the department. Hank had a strong grip on his lover, guiding him back to the bullpen as casually as he could whilst Nines kept his fretting gaze on Gavin as long as he could before disappearing around the corner. 

Connor threw the shawl back over Gavin, concealing his identity once more and led him into the back of the precinct, telling some passing officers he was taking an android to get some repairs. Gavin’s anxiety sky-rocketed every time they passed someone or turned a corner, afraid they’d ask to see what was wrong with him or he’d bump into someone and the cover would fall off.

He was relieved when Connor had slipped them both past the tech lab and into the entrance to the car park, picking up his pace as he rushed Gavin across the near vacant lot and into the back of Hank’s car. Once they were both inside, Connor reversed and pulled the car out of the park, driving out of the lot and away from the precinct. Gavin’s shoulders dropped with relief, rubbing his face with his hands and sighing. He could feel Connor’s gaze on him in the rear-view, but he could give a rat’s ass on whatever that look held because he got out. He escaped. 

He should’ve known that it was a stupid idea to sneak in the precinct to steal parts, regardless of whatever low energy adrenaline and impulses he was acting on. Sometimes he wished his coding could’ve been more structured and stable when he deviated, like Connor and Nines, but not every android was created with the _intention_ of deviating. Maybe he wouldn’t be making so many mistakes if he was, though he supposed that he’s always acted with more emotion than logic, even before he had broken past the mental wall that barred him from free will. 

The silent car ride was long and contemplative, for both of the androids. Gavin was sure Connor was thinking about every interaction he’s had with Gavin, trying to point out little things that should’ve notified him that Gavin wasn’t human. He was probably also trying to figure out what his model was, his production date and where he originated from. Blueprints, emails, contracts, hell he was probably even looking at sex shops at this point. Gavin knew he would find nothing concrete. Not even Gavin could, because it doesn’t exist. No amount of digging and hacking would turn up anything, meaning it was Cyberlife’s word against Gavin’s own. 

Just how they intended it to be. 

Gavin, on the other hand, was trying to wrap his head around how he was going to face Nines as he was. Sure, their small reunion was infinite times better than what he had thought it would be, but that was in the moment. Gavin now was grappling with the uncertainty that when he is alone with Nines after everything that’s happened, with everything Nines has learned about him, that there may not be a very welcoming set of arms to jump into. His hand was being shown, and with that came explaining himself. His past.

That was something he had still yet to face. And now that he had to, he would face it bare, with no sword and armor to protect him from the monstrous hellfire that would spew from the beast which he thought he had finally escaped from.

The car finally pulled into a small parking lot of a motel, the building looking somewhat well kept, but only so much could be said for a motel and it’s forever flickering lighting. The car pulled itself to a stop and parked perfectly between the lines, Connor wasting no time in exiting the car and leaving Gavin alone. He had half the mind to follow after him, but decided to stay in the car for the time being. His appearance would probably scare the daylights out of whoever was working the front desk if they caught sight of him, and he doubted his shady disguise would help Connor get a room. 

Connor returned from the front desk office and tapped the hood of the car, signaling for Gavin to get out. He did, and without a word Connor led him to the last room on ground level, far away from the desk office and easy to escape from if need be. The door looked scuffed, and the key Connor had taken a few tries before clicking open, the door creaking quietly as Connor opened it the rest of the way. 

The room had a singular bed lamp on an end table beside the furthest of two queen beds situated along the faded floral wallpaper of the room, divided by an old wooden dresser, a Bible on top along with an incorrectly set digital clock. A small table and chairs sat to Gavin’s left in the corner, a vase full of fake petunias inside and a stack of paper napkins laid next to it. A TV was mounted on the wall directly in front of the beds, a mini fridge beneath it embedded in some counters which also had a sink and microwave, effectively the kitchen as well as the living room. There was another door in the back of the room, the bathroom he presumed. He didn’t have much hope for it being anything better than what he had here. 

The smell consisted of faint marijuana and sweat. He did not want to think of the inclinations of that as he sat down on one of the beds, the springs moaning with age and abuse. Definitely not what he or Nines slept on, but he was not going to be picky at this moment in time. He was just glad to be out of harm’s way for the moment. When Connor flicked on the light for the room, but nothing happened. Out of order, most likely. He sighed before shutting the door, taking a seat in one of the chairs by the table and staring at Gavin as he removed his covering, revealing the full extent of his wounds once more.

He really prayed that Connor would not ask-

“How did you do it?”

He wasn’t surprised.

“ _Do what?_ ” Gavin’s voice was reverberated and hazy, his voice module having been one of the few things he hadn’t been able to fix during his very quick visit to the tech lab in the precinct. 

“Appear human,” Connor elaborated, his voice coated in confusion and disbelief and his expression screaming that Gavin was not possible in any shape of form. “I would’ve picked up on something, I _should’ve._ Even when scanning you, you never had any irregularities or missing information any human wouldn’t have. How were you able to slip through my abilities? _What are you, Reed?_ ”

Connor’s latter statement should not have stung so much, but it did. The way it was said, it was almost as if Connor was seeing him like an alien more than an android. Sure, Gavin could understand where he was coming from, his frustration, his shock to the whole situation; but if there was one thing he didn’t need at the moment, Gavin knew it was being viewed like some weird hybrid animal.

“ _You should go back to the station before they go searching for you, Connor._ ”

**//////**

**9:53 p.m.**

Hours went by idly and without much note as Gavin slept in a semi-stasis state. He needed energy to function and begin to try and repair the rest of himself, but he needed to also be on the alert. Definitely not the most efficient way to charge, but it was better than slipping into a stress induced nightmare. And his nightmares were not anything made and conjured up by his deepest anxieties or subconscious dread, they were memories. Memories he had done his best to lock away and forget, the ones that hadn’t been or couldn’t be wiped from his hard drive. He had tried. God how many times he had tried to delete them from his head and to be blissfully unaware of his origins. He had even tried creating fabricated memories, which he sometimes would find himself in during good nights when stasis blessed him with dreams. They weren’t much, as they looked more like what would be called home videos than his own personal memories. He was an outsider looking in, because they were not his, nor were they anyone else’s. They were fake, but they still gave him the stability he needed when he was still trying to wrangle the loose and _real_ memories into a Pandora’s box, never to be touched or opened back up. 

Still, once and while one would pop back up. He’d beat it back into his mind’s prison, and try to forget about it again. Which was the problem: he never tried to confront them. It didn’t matter how much he would repress them or lock them in an encrypted and sealed off Tartarus, because they’d always find some hole and squeeze out. Get him when he was least expecting it, when he was vulnerable.

Now, with the world’s stress hanging on his shoulders and then some, and the fact he would be explaining his entire story in the matter of hours, he feared that one wrong step and all the walls he built to protect himself from the trauma he sealed away will come crashing down and it’ll all hit him at once. He’s sure that the pain has only grown in intensity over the years and will wash over him like a hurricane, making him not so confident that he won’t not try to self-destruct if this were to occur. So, all he could do was try to throw up some flimsy mental preparation. 

He hoped Nines would forgive him for the things he would tell him. The things that he’s done.

The things he himself has not forgiven himself for.

**//////**

The door’s lock jingled and opened, and from the bathroom mirror, he could see Hank, Connor, and Tina enter, Nines following a few seconds later with a duffel bag and shutting the door with his foot. He knew they saw him but he didn’t say a greeting, too focused on trying to rewire his voice module back to normal, which was quite difficult when you were missing half a finger. He had opened up his throat cavity with a stray screwdriver he luckily found in the linen closet, tired of sounding like a muffled, glitchy version of himself.

He could hear the light footsteps of Tina approaching from behind, seeing her leaning on the door frame to the bathroom in the mirror and staring incredulously at him. He was glad she was ok after he blitz’d her in the holding cell. He had needed to find a better hiding place, but couldn’t have gotten into the ceiling panels without her noticing and notifying someone nearby. He looked at her in the mirror and gave her an apologetic look, wishing he could vocalize it. 

She was eventually called back by Hank, and Gavin finally took notice of the little meeting circle that had formed, Connor and Hank sat in the chairs and Nines and Tina on the bed closest, the duffle bag Nines brought in laying on the other bed. Under other circumstances, he would’ve walked over and inserted himself in whatever club meeting they were holding. Now, he knew, it would only be questions as soon as he even took a breath in their general direction. He preferred to let them all ask each other questions and wait for at least Hank and Connor to leave before he would begin to answer anything remotely personal. 

After one last wire was twisted together, he pushed the voice module back into place, letting his CPU calibrate before screwing back on the throat cover. The black chassis mostly covered up with faux skin, though in some areas he was still damaged enough to where he’d need to fix it with a little more than a screwdriver to get faux skin to reappear there. 

He didn’t want to turn around and face them for another reason besides being interrogated. When he first saw his reflection in the mirror he had flinched. He looked so different, much like a robotic zombie has stolen his place in the mirror. His one dysfunctional yellow eye was simply a soft glowing light, though he could still see mushed and blurry images from it, and it seemed like some of the plating of his cheek was torn away, revealing some of his realistic teeth that he doubted was very attractive. His chassis was unapologetically exposed on nearly half of his face, and the multiple scratches or gashes he had not been able to fix across his entire body only created himself more dysmorphia. 

He looked like a monster. 

And by the end of the night, he’ll know if that’s what he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope this was good!! shits gonna start hitting the fan so buckle in buckaroos


	15. The Wicked Do Not Sleep Soundly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the overwhelming support on the last chapter made me cry y'all thank you so much  
> also, for those who re-read the story while it was on hiatus, sorry for putting you through the emotional torture coaster several times over lmao  
> !!!ALSO IMPORTANT TW!!!  
> HEAVY DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE IN THIS CHAPTER, PLS DO NOT READ IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, THERE WILL BE A CHAPTER SUMMARY AT THE BOTTOM

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

**2:59 a.m.**

Sleep never was Gavin’s priority before teaming up with Nines, and it still was pretty low on that scale despite his partner’s insistence that he needed to. Of course, Nines didn’t know that he was an android, and therefore didn’t need an entire 8 to 9 hours and then some like a human would. Still, fatigue can and will happen to any creature who doesn’t at least rest for a few hours, and it was pretty much all Gavin knew prior to his bad habit being discovered. He needed at least 5 hours of daily stasis to be at peak performance, he’s known this. After all, he was an older model by Cyberlife standards - even if he was a prototype - and older models usually had to charge daily unlike Connor or Nines, who just needed stasis every other day.

It probably caused his irritability too, even though he had tried to convince himself that it was a simple cover to keep himself safe. It was helpful in selling his act, but when it came to Tina or Nines, he felt terrible when he lashed out in genuine frustration because his head was foggy and his tank was running low from avoiding stasis for days.

It would cause him to be less attentive, less aware of things going on around him. Small things that he should’ve picked up on and avoided, like an uneven piece of sidewalk he would then trip on or a criminal slipping out of their cuffs and proceeding to try and choke him while driving back to the precinct (it’s happened quite a few times). He was slower in reacting, slower in realizing what was wrong with a situation, a case, or his environment. He was slower in his movements by fractions of a second, but those fractions count in dangerous situations. He couldn’t read someone’s emotions and sincerity, and predicting someone’s moves efficiently, physically or mentally, became like trying to sort sand by individual specks. 

He brought this on himself, naturally. He had his reasons to not appreciate stasis, from replayed memories he had been forcing away to the darkest corners of his mind to the monotonous process of waking up and having to recalibrate all of his settings to be in tune, as his stasis tended to mess with his abilities from being prone for so long and usually in a distressed state while under stasis. 

When he did sleep, it usually was when he could no longer keep going and he unwillingly went into emergency shutdown mode, but recently it was when Nines would practically pin him down to either the couch or his bed until he would at least try and get a few hours.

Nines was good like that. Tina, while she had tried to encourage him to sleep with a semi-regular schedule, was just as bad as him. She always joked about both of them being insomniacs, but her jokes might as well be fact judging by how many times they both stayed at the precinct into the unholy hours of night, not a word exchanged between them except the occasional question of whether or not the other wanted a coffee.

There were weeks where no one would sleep; some big homicide case or bank robbery that needed to be solved before the press and the mayor got on their asses about it. It was one of those weeks, a week where not even Nines would tell Gavin to go lay down, too focused on figuring out the pieces to the puzzle while Gavin began to falter silently. He always did his best to appear normal when he was getting tired and, to his knowledge at least, Nines hadn’t noticed anything amiss with the detective. He took that as a win. He didn’t want him to worry for him too much, especially when they were working a big case like they were.

Still, Gavin would rub his eyes when they unfocused suddenly, or when he caught himself before completely stumbling over another officer who was rushing past, someone he should’ve seen coming the moment he stood from his chair. 

Sleep-deprivation, in his case, is the main reason he is where he is now.

**//////**

Something was wrong.

The day had been great; work was manageable and allowed Nines and Gavin to get out of the office for a bit to cover for Hank and Connor’s patrol shift since they were away on a triple homicide. The case everyone had been fretting over was originally a joint effort of the entire department, but due to more cases piling up and not enough hands to give them to, the homicides were handed off to Hank and Connor. Gavin was only slightly jealous at the lost prospect of getting to crack the case, but at least he wasn’t going to be the one dealing with the media frenzy that surrounded it.

They both joined Tina out for drinks and no creeps annoyed the group. Nines walked him home, able to join hands in the shadows of the Detroit streets before reaching Gavin’s apartment and snuggling up to each other on the couch to watch some nature documentary Nines recently became interested in. Gavin himself didn’t care much for it, but it was nice background noise as he fell asleep on top of his partner. 

Nines had moved him to his room before he left, much to Gavin’s hidden disgruntlement. He had thought about just continuing to stay in stasis, but when he felt a light burning sensation rising in his head, he quickly woke himself up. He left his bedroom and paced about the apartment, his cats watching him curiously as he tried to find something to do to occupy time and distract himself from the heaviness he felt in his thirium pump, undoubtedly from sleep-deprivation. 

Nothing stuck out to him at that moment until he looked in the fridge and saw that he was low on cat food. 

And so, there Gavin was, walking down the empty streets in his bomber jacket and a gray hoodie, sweatpants and some old sneakers on his lower half. He knew of a 24/7 grocery centre that wasn’t too far away, so he figured it would at least give him busywork to focus on until he had to get ready for the day. It was also in the direction of Nines’ apartment, so if Gavin really wanted a distraction, he could bother his favorite android. He could only imagine the look on his partner’s face when he would open the door and there Gavin would be, a plastic bag in hand filled with cat food and asking if he could hang out there. Though, he wasn’t sure if it was worth the lecture he would get, whether it be about his health or his safety… 

It was once he exited the grocery centre that things felt off. He started back down the way he came, deciding against the idea to make the early morning visit to Nines. But things did not feel right. The path back was different in a way, but his mind was too cloudy to try and figure out what it was immediately. He simply just walked a bit faster, wanting to get home and shake off the persistent feeling of eyes being on him, trying to brush it off as paranoia.

If he was at full awareness, he would’ve seen that there were four black SUVs parked along the barren road that hadn’t been there previously, each far enough but still within view of each other. He would’ve seen that the streetlamps that were in front of alleys had been conveniently turned off, obscuring them in a thick blackness. Fully boarded windows of abandoned or foreclosed buildings now had one or two panels missing. Shadows silently moved along the rooftops of said buildings. Figures blending into the dark alleys followed Gavin along in the catacomb-like paths, eyes trained on him like predators to prey.

It was the distinct cock of a gun that finally shot adrenaline through his systems, his CPU waking up from its foggy state and kicking straight into hyperdrive. 

Dropping the bag to cat food, Gavin broke into full sprint, narrowly getting across the street before a cacophony of shots rang out into the once silent night. He felt at three five graze into his leg and arm, and one directly lodging itself into his side, sending an electric shock down his entire body and nearly causing him to double over. 

Fighting through the shock, he ducked into an alley, only to be met with the burning and loud crackling electricity of a cattle prod, which stabbed into his middle and sent him prone on the ground. The ugly smell of burning cloth and cool thirium spurting from the wound filled his senses as his vision glitched for a few moments, hearing the voices of a few men talking to a walkie-talkie. He couldn’t decipher what they were speaking about, his ears rang with static, but the sudden pop up of an objective in his eyes jolted him back to reality:

**OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE**

**//////**

**Today, January 8th, 2040**

**10:00 p.m.**

He hadn’t realized how long he had been standing in the bathroom, staring down his reflection and attempting to organize himself enough to face his friends behind him. That was, until he heard Hank call out to him, flinching at how loud his voice rang through the stillness of the motel room. He hoped no one had seen him do so, but he didn’t raise his hopes up too much. They had probably been staring at him since they arrived, waiting for him to walk over and say something, anything at all. 

Turning around with a small sigh, he left the bathroom slowly, not meeting anyone’s eyes as he stared at the ground. The fact he was trying to hide the shame he felt was laughable, especially in a room with those who could read him better than he could sometimes. He took a nervous seat on the bed with the duffel bag, folding his hands together and continuing to stare at the floor. Now more than ever he could feel the three sets of eyes boring into him, shifting uncomfortably in his seat as the long silence dragged on. He didn’t want to even glance up at them, afraid of whatever he’d find in his friend’s faces even if just for a moment. It didn’t matter what it would be, but Gavin knew it would be nothing good. Disappointment, betrayal, pity; all three emotions he despised, especially when it was him receiving it. He didn't think he could handle it at the moment.

It was a long and tense silence before it was finally broken by Hank, who spoke in a soft tone he had never heard him use before. It was fatherly in a way. 

Gavin didn’t like it.

“You look pretty fucked up there, Reed.”

Gavin didn’t look at him to scowl like he usually would. He didn’t try to argue, or call Hank names or try to turn it on him. No, that Gavin was gone. Anger would solve nothing. The shield he had used for so long was gone, and now he was exposed literally and figuratively. 

He didn’t know what to do, or say for that matter. So I just said the first thing he could think of before the silence stretched on for too long again:

“I know.”

His spirit sounded so broken, so distant even he didn't recognize his own voice for a moment.

“Is there anything we can do? To help get you back to.. Y’know,” Hank said, carefully dancing over the obvious. Gavin knew what he meant, but before he could respond Nines voice cut him off.

“I brought some parts and tools from home. They’re in the bag,” His voice had an uneven calm to it, cold indifference emanating from his tone. Gavin was almost certain that he only heard that voice when Nines teetered on the edge of his emotional resolve, whether it be fury or sorrow. Gavin wasn’t sure which he would prefer right now. 

He turned to the bag and opened it, the soft _clink_ of metal was like heaven’s trumpets on his ears. Early, he began to sift through the bag, his head able to focus on something other than what was going on around him. He didn’t want to be here. Not with them, even if they meant well. They didn’t need to see him in this state. 

Hank was right, he was pretty fucked up visually. It couldn’t be easy to sit and stare at him as he began to blowtorch and pseudo-weld some of his easier to fix scrapes over - the metal seamlessly melted back together, and some would leave visible scars even underneath the faux skin -, especially Connor and Nines. Tina and Hank could relate his injuries to things they’ve seen on humans, but Connor and Nines know what it feels like. 

To have your chassis exposed felt cold and uncomfortable; to have gashes and open wounds meant that every time you moved the wrong way or too much, hot and painful electricity would zap you along the area it was located; to lose a limb, an attachment, was like the world’s worst game of _Operation,_ as attaching on a new limb too fast or without prior knowledge of the android’s inner workings, sparks could ignite and send waves upon waves of painful shocks across the body. 

Their skin must’ve crawled when they finally saw him, fully exposed and without the cover of a shawl. 

He didn’t realize how long it had been quiet until he was snapped out of his trance by Hank again, Gavin in the middle of reattaching a finger to the stub he had on his hand. Only then did he make the mistake of looking at them, and how he longed that he hadn’t.

Tina had obviously been crying if her watery eyes had anything to say. She saw him partially in the mirror, but to really see him, 5 feet away from her… Her ruined mascara showed how much he had an affect on her. Or maybe she had already been crying, that what she could see in the mirror was enough to make her weep over the fact she couldn’t recognize her friend anymore. He couldn’t blame her; he never would. She had a little bandage on the corner of her temple that he hadn’t noticed before, probably from where he hit her at when they were in the cell together. He still needed to properly apologize for that. 

Hank and Connor held similar expressions, both a mix of morbid curiosity of Gavin’s secret identity and abject horror on his appearance and demeanor. He could tell they were searching for an easy explanation, a way that they could deduce this all by themselves and let Gavin simply fill in the blanks. They subtly studied him like he was one of their cases, and Gavin knew they were because he’s been around them far too long not to notice Hank’s flickering glances across his body and the way Connor stilled as he scanned him. 

Nines was the one who Gavin had to look away from the quickest.

He was angry, even if his stoic face held no obvious displeasure. But, his posture was too stiff and straight, something he had grown out of quickly when becoming partners with Gavin who demanded he loosen up. His arms were crossed, again stiff and unforthcoming. Reserved, even. The moment he made eye-contact, he could _feel_ the fiery anger beneath the icy glare Nines threw his way. It stung. 

And if you really paid attention, you could see that he had a red-LED, except instead of the regular rose red, it was a deep shade of ruby. Nines was a ticking time bomb. And for once, Gavin didn’t know what was gonna detonate him. 

**//////**

**Today, January 7th, 2040**

**3:12 a.m.**

If Gavin was to be honest with himself, he couldn't quite remember when he was finally able to knock away the cattle prods from the armed men and start kicking ass. It was a flurry of arms and legs being swung and kicked in all directions, Gavin losing count of each strike as he was beaten senseless and him returning the favor. Still, he surged forward, fighting with an animalistic desperation he hadn’t felt in his chest in years. Electric adrenaline, the grating sound of metal being torn open, the _snap_ of sparks flying from his eye cavity as it was punched out, leaving him with half of his clear vision and the rest being very blurred and dark. He could feel thirium running everywhere on his body, not one part of him left unharmed in some way or form. Still, Gavin soldiered on.

Just as he knocked one man’s head into the brick wall of the alley’s wall, he felt a sharp jolt of electricity spread across his back as a sharp knife was dug into his shoulder blade, the blade being dragged down slowly as Gavin bit back a cry of pain. He tried to turn and grab his attacker, only to be grabbed by the throat and pressed against the wall, the knife abandoned and digging further into his back as he was pushed against the wall. 

His attacker’s hands dug into his throat, Gavin hearing the distinct _crack_ of his voice module cracking and the chassis beginning to snap underneath the pressure. Gavin thrashed wildly and kicked his opponent in an attempt to fight back, but this attacker was much bigger than him, much stronger. He stood no chance.

Carefully, he reached behind his back and was able to grab onto the handle of the knife still embedded into his back. His attacker only pressed harder onto his throat, Gavin’s interface warning him of imminent damage and shutdown if he doesn’t do something, and do something now. 

All Gavin could hear was the short cry of pain before silence followed, his attacker releasing his throat and slumping to the ground, the knife stabbed straight through the top of the man’s head.

He gasped for air he didn’t need, looking around for any more attackers. When he saw none, he quickly removed his torn jacket and hoodie, both stained purple with both human and android blood. 

Around him laid six men, wearing dark clothes and bulletproof vests, wearing night vision goggles and masks to cover their lower half of their faces. One breathed. The rest laid, dead. Snapped necks, blunt force, stabs; they all died painfully.

Gavin wanted nothing more than to do the same to himself as he stared at his blood stained hands, theirs mixing with his own. Tears rolled down his face, a choked sob unable to escape his throat due to his voice module being completely destroyed. 

He’d need to fix that. And his missing finger. He had a few holes to patch up as well. And scrapes. That back wound should definitely be checked out.

Gavin focused on that. His injuries. Selfish it was, self-centered even, but he needed to be distracted. He had promised himself it wouldn’t come to this. Not ever again. And with the sound of more footsteps rapidly approaching, he couldn’t afford the time to feel sorry for the people he’s murdered, or for himself. Not yet.

Reaching down to the man that laid on the ground before him, Gavin took his gun from the holster before running. Running as fast as the wind could take him. Far away from the past he had let slip away from him too easily. The past he nearly forgot. Good things never last forever. He knew that, and yet he still let himself become soft and careless to the dangers he should’ve been on constant watch for. 

He ran into a different alley after dashing down two blocks and encountered three more men, all armed with cattle prods. Their guns were holstered. They didn’t know what hit them until the echo of gunshots bounced off the narrow alley’s walls and they each fell right after the other, clean holes through each of their heads as blood began to pool on the dirty ground below. Gavin could only mutter silently his apologies before jumping over them and continuing on, weaving in and out of alleys, running out of bullets after the fifth man collapsed to the ground in a heap. He tossed the gun away but didn’t have time to grab one off one of the dead men as he heard shots ring off and one grazed his ear, effectively taking a chunk from it. 

He sprinted like a fox from a dog. It was all he could do. He was completely powerless and alone, no one there to watch his back while he took a moment to breathe. He was, _quite literally,_ a knife in a gunfight, and he didn’t even have a knife. He had no place to hide because they were everywhere somehow, no matter the corner he turned and the zig-zagging pattern he utilized. They would simply chase him until he shut down or was killed. 

It’s not like they’d let those men die in vain. They all had a mission to complete, machines with one task, and Gavin unfortunately knew what that felt like. He also knew they would stop at nothing until it was complete, and he knew nothing really did mean _nothing_.

Gavin would not be sleeping for a long, _long_ time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its funny as im not all that invested into dbh anymore, but my soft spot for this story drives me to complete it  
> also, i've been writing quite a few short stories for the dnd campaigns i'm in, should i post them sometime?  
> Chapter Summary:  
> Gavin describes his complicated relationship with sleep, describing how Nines has helped with his struggle with it's side affects, but tends to push himself to his limits and that sleep induces nightmares most of the time. Then we cut to Gavin leaving his home on January 7th at nearly 3am to get cat food in order to just avoid sleeping. On his way back, he is ambushed by gunshots and ducks into an alley, where he is quickly met with men with cattle prods, who then give him a few aggressive pokes. We then cut to present day with Gavin in the motel room with Connor, Hank and Tina. He is called over by Hank and obeys, sitting and not meeting their eyes. He realizes that his old self is gone, and Nines tells him there are tools and parts in the bag. When he gets too focused on fixing himself, he looks up and sees his friends faces; Tina, who has been crying; Connor and Hank looking at him like a case they would study; and Nines, who looks deadly furious. Cutting once more to January 7th, Gavin kills a couple men in various ways in order to escape and survive, but he hates himself for it and wants nothing more than for everything to end, concluding that he will not be sleeping peacefully for a while.


	16. Anderson Family Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hank is the father y'all. ultimate dad in this chapter. enjoy!!

**Today, January 8th, 2040**

**10:10 p.m.**

Connor couldn’t contain himself anymore, it would to Gavin as the android began to fire off a slew of questions at him, Gavin barely able to keep up with how quick his inquisitive friend spoke.

“How did you survive?”

“It’s a long story-.”

“Why didn’t you call for help? You must have an internal communication system of some sort?”

“Well I was being chased-.”

“How were you able to stay hidden for over a decade?”

“Are you an experimental android?”

“How did you deviate?”

“ **_Are you ra9?_ **”

Gavin groaned in frustration and because of the headache Connor was giving him, burying his head in his hands and rubbing at his temples. He did not have the mental strength or stamina to handle Connor _normally,_ let alone when he’s sat in a motel room, after being chased down by international police for the past two days and his body in bits and pieces. He was exhausted, he was drained of most of his strength, and he surely was not in the right headspace to try and answer Connor’s questions in one quick go.

Hank nudged Connor in the side with his elbow, cutting off the android before he could press further. “Con, I’m going to say exactly what I think Reed would be saying right now: Shut the fuck up.”

Gavin chuckled blandly. “Glad you know me so well, Anderson,” He mumbled quietly, raising his head from his hands and looking at the Lieutenant with a half-hearted grin. 

“Frankly, kid, I don’t think that’s true,” Hank quipped back, taking a deep breath and seemed to think for a moment before speaking again, leaning back in his chair and looking over everyone else in the room. “I’m sure we all have questions.”

“You think?” The rest of them replied in unison, in varying degrees of emotion and volume. 

“So, in order to not make Gavin explode from overload or whatever the fuck verge he’s on, we each get one question, and we’re going in a circle. If, by the end of it, Gavin thinks he can take another round of interrogation, then we’ll keep going until he needs to stop,” Hank stated, his tone leaving no room for argument or negotiation. He sounded tired too, though Gavin didn’t know if it was because he did worry for him or if it was because he was done with the bullshit he’s been dragged through the past few days. One could say it was both, but Gavin refused to think it was the prior. 

Gavin scoffed. “You make this sound like group therapy.” 

He may have sounded like he thought it was a childish idea, but he secretly thought the Lieutenant was rather mature about it. He could tell Gavin wasn’t fully capable of sitting through an interrogation by him or Connor or Tina or Nines: like how he put it, Gavin would explode. Not physically, but the last shreds of his sanity and stability might. It was a good idea to give Gavin the option to take a breather, to give him out, and it also fulfilled the group’s desire to squeeze answers out of him like an orange juicer. He could definitely see Hank’s paternal side showing its face, and could understand why Connor saw him as a father. 

“This feels exactly like the goddamn talking stick we used to do when I was younger,” Tina complained, Gavin was relieved to notice she was no longer crying and she had wiped away most of the smudged mascara that covered his cheeks and eyes.

As if to make this even more absurd, or maybe just to try and lighten the mood, Hank looked around quickly and swiped the TV remote that had laid on the dining table next to him, holding it up. “You only get to ask questions if you have the TV remote.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Gavin half-laughed, shaking his head over how childish Hank was making this seem. Deep down, he appreciated the man’s attempt to cheer them up a little.

“We aren’t 5, Lieutenant Anderson,” Tina rolled her eyes, sharing Gavin’s sentiments. A small smile tugged at her lips.

Connor tilted his head curiously but said nothing. The android was probably perplexed by the odd rules, but said nothing to protest as the Lieutenant lowered the remote to his lap and let it rest there. Nines, on the other hand, couldn’t look the least bit interested, his gaze somewhere far beyond the walls of the motel. In his own head. His cold and indifferent demeanor still hung heavy around him, but for the moment Nines wasn’t glaring at him, and Gavin couldn’t feel the burning fury that bore out from his eyes a few minutes beforehand. At least, for the moment. He knew that they would have their clash sometime soon. 

He just hoped it wouldn’t be in front of everyone else. After all, they already thought Gavin was a bad influence for Nines. He didn’t want them to have evidence of that. 

Hank cleared his throat, holding up the remote once more and Tina and Gavin quieted for the Lieutenant. After a few moments of silence, the Lieutenant spoke in a monotone voice. “My name is Hank Anderson, and-.”

“Oh my god just ask your goddamn question,” Gavin cut him off with a snap that really was to cover for the fact he was stifling a laugh. “This isn’t your rehab group, you old geez.”

Hank simply rolled his eyes lamely and continued. “I’ll start out with an easy one: how are you feeling, Gavin?”

That was certainly not an easy question. 

Gavin shrugged, looking away to the wall behind the TV in the room. “I don’t know, Anderson. I was living a perfectly okay life a few days ago. Now I’m sitting in a dingy motel room, half of my body still in need of repairs, no sleep, my cover being blown and all my worst fears coming back to bite me in the balls,” Gavin said in a nonchalant way, though his hands fidgeted with the sheets of the bed nervously. He hated talking about how he felt, it was all too complex for him to even try to break down normally, which is a reason why he never tried to sugarcoat things or was abrasively blunt at times. Trying to fake emotions and be two-faced was simply too much for a man with little to no emotional intelligence. “How do you think I feel?”

“Angry with yourself, I’d assume,” Hank answered. Gavin couldn’t help but snort dryly at the easy deduction, though grew quiet as he continued. “You said it yourself, you’ve been living underneath the safety of a secret identity, and you were thriving. I can’t imagine how you must feel for having the rug ripped from beneath you and then getting beat over the head with it, you must be somewhat upset for allowing yourself to get too comfortable with where you were.

“You must be scared, too. We saw, well, _most_ of us saw how desperate you were to escape. Hell, you were willing to knock Tina out cold and wrestle with Connor more than once in order to do so. Something has to be pushing you to make such drastic decisions. I saw the look in your eyes briefly as I dragged Nines back to the office,” Hank leaned in a little, his voice lowering to that soft tone that made Gavin want to both cringe and receive a hug from the man. He really hated that tone, but at the same time it gave him the weirdest sense of comfort. Gavin was sure if he looked him in the eye at that moment, he might’ve teared up a bit. 

“Gavin, never, and I mean _never,_ have I seen you ever look so utterly _petrified._ It was like I saw a completely different man, and I guess I did in a way, but it wasn’t _you._ This,” He gestured to Gavin, who hadn’t interrupted him like he usually would, who sat with tense shoulders and fists clenching bedsheets like it was the only thing grounding him, even though he always sat lax and rarely needed to fidget with anything. Gavin, who always met anyone’s eyes and would establish himself as the dominating force in nearly any situation, was averting eye contact and shrunk in on himself slightly when someone addressed him. Gavin, who was loud, who never backed-down from an argument or name-calling, who was a _beacon_ of aggressiveness and fearlessness: it had all crumbled away, the surviving bits shining through briefly before Gavin returned to the unrecognizable person that sat before the group. A hearth with only ashes of what was once a blazing fire of a spirit. “This isn’t you. I could care less that you’re an android, what I’m more worried about is that you’re a lot more versions of fucked in the head than any of us knew, and that with everything that’s happening, it’s eating you inside and out. I personally fear that, as much as I can despise you on any regular Tuesday, the Gavin we all know and love is quickly burning out. And I don’t think I’d like machine Gavin much better than asshole Gavin.

“So, whenever we get to addressing some topics, please don’t hide any details. We aren’t here to judge. We want to help you, but we need to know the whole story before we can. And talking about this stuff can help you get it off your chest. You’ll probably feel a hundred pounds lighter, and it won’t be eating away at you so much,” Hank finished, taking a deep breath to sigh after he was done.

The room was quiet, everyone pondering Hank’s words. Gavin was especially surprised with the Lieutenant’s observation. He really did underestimate the man too greatly. His words weighed down on him like a boulder, Gavin struggling beneath its genuinity and care put into each sentence. He still didn’t look the Lieutenant in the eye, afraid that if he found one more ounce of gentleness in his face that he might just burst into tears. He really didn’t deserve the man’s insightful wisdom after everything they had been through, yet Hank still gave it up so willingly.

Maybe he needed to reevaluate his relationship with the Lieutenant. 

After five minutes of quiet contemplation, Gavin murmured a nearly inaudible “ _I’ll keep that in mind_ ” and looked away from the wall to the floor beneath his feet. Right after, Connor quickly snatched the remote from where the Lieutenant had placed it down on the table while he monologued. Hank made a noise of protest, which was drowned out by Connor’s eager voice which was loud compared to the Lieutenant’s.

“Are you a prototype? Like me and Nines?”

Now this was a question Gavin could answer quite simply.

“Yes, Connor, I am a prototype. Actually, I believe I am the living blueprint of what would become the RK-Series,” Gavin would’ve laughed at the gawked look on Connor’s face if he wasn’t focused on moving on quickly so pesky memories would stay away from his head. Nines seemed to be drawn from his little world he was in, perking up and seeming to finally take an active interest in conversation. Gavin didn’t doubt that he had listened to Hank speak, but he knew Nines had probably come to the same conclusions before the Lieutenant.

“I wasn’t designated for detective work, however. Government positions, like the CIA or INTERPOL. I was built for undercover work. It’s why I lasted so long as I did. I have special abilities that cloak me with a human temperature and pulse and heartbeat, and it basically messes and fixes any scans of me so I can pass for a human. I don’t have any of that fancy reconstruction shit, though. I can scan and identify wounds or bullets or people, but the rest is up to me to figure out. Luckily, it got easy after a while, setting aside the complicated cases.”

“So, you’re a part of the RK-Series… Does that mean you can deviate other androids too?” Connor questioned further. Hank went to shut him down, but Gavin held up a hand to quiet him. 

“I don’t know, Connor. I’m a pretty old fucking model, it’s a miracle that I was able to achieve deviancy at all,” Gavin explained. “And before you can even ask; no, I am not some android messiah god deity or whatever the hell ra9 is. I barely had time to register it as a virus before I became deviant. Besides, if I was some robot Jesus, do you think I’d be working a 9-5 and living in an apartment?”

Connor mulled over Gavin’s words before shrugging in agreement. “I suppose a god would have more important tasks than arresting drunk men who got into a bar fight.”

“That’s the spirit,” Gavin hummed, thankful as Connor handed off the remote to Tina, who looked at Gavin with a mischievous glint in her eye. He wasn’t so sure he was thankful anymore.

Before she could speak, Gavin did speak up. “Tina, I’m sorry for knocking you out earlier.”

She let out an unbothered _pshhhht,_ waving away his apology. “You were hyped on adrenaline and desperate for a way out. I would’ve done the same thing in your shoes.”

“That still doesn’t make it right though, T,” Gavin grumbled.

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. I’m just glad you’re not dead at least,” She assured him. It made him smile a little, but it was immediately dropped once she blurted out her next sentence, as if she had been holding it in the moment she set foot in the room.

“Since when were you going to tell me you and Nines were a thing? I thought I was privy to your life, Gavin!”

Gavin processed and his eyes grew wide, his gaze settling on Nines who matched it with his own look of surprise, though his was more of he didn’t expect that to tumble from Tina’s mouth while Gavin’s was pure shock. He looked between all of them: Hank simply looked away when Gavin tried to look at him, Connor looked equally as curious as Tina was, and Nines was less surprised and became indifferent once more, giving Gavin a neutral shrug. As if to say " _It was eventually gonna happen"._

“I.. Who… When did you find out? Are you guys the only ones who know?”

Tina’s face grimaced, and Gavin wanted nothing more than to slam his head into a pillow and scream. Not only was his identity exposed, _so was his relationship they wanted to keep secret for a while longer._

Gavin really couldn’t have anything nice, could he?

“This lady from Cyberlife came by and interrogated Nines about you. She forced him to admit it,” Tina explained. Gavin looked to Nines, and briefly he saw a pained look cross his lover’s face. Gavin felt guilty for letting him go through that alone, not being by his side like they had always planned to be when they finally would decide to come out of private. He couldn't imagine how Nines might feel, or how Nines think he might feel about it. “I’m really sorry, Gavin. We couldn’t stop her from interrogating, we had to stay back until she was satisfied with what evidence and statements she had.”

Gavin shook his head. “It’s okay, T, you were just following the rules,” He was glad to see his friend let out a sigh of relief.

However, slowly, a dreadful idea bubbled to the surface of his mind. An idea that made him freeze once he began to really think about what Tina had just described. Surely, he was wrong? There was no way that...

It was a question that he couldn’t help but ask, despite knowing that whatever the answer was would only spur more questions. His morbid pursuit to know everything that was going on beyond what he's experienced pushed him to gently take the remote from Tina. Nines shot him a pointed look, though it soon went away once he saw how Gavin’s hands began to tremble a little. 

Gavin gulped. “Who was the woman?”

He dreaded the answer. In the back corners of his mind, he knew the answer already, and that answer was the key slowly turning the lock of a cell door in the deep recesses of his mind. The door which holds the memories he forces down everyday, the ones he buries so deep within himself he sometimes forgets about them until something triggers them. A phrase, an action, a sound. 

A name.

With a raised eyebrow, Tina responded slowly, sensing Gavin’s apprehensiveness. 

“Priscilla Smithe.”

Gavin’s entire world seemed to still. Briefly, everything went quiet, and there was a strange calm as he tried to deny the blasphemed name he just heard. Surely not? No, he had escaped her, she abandoned him, she didn’t want him. Why was she chasing him then? His mind raced rapidly. The faint burning sensation he had felt two days prior filled his whole head, and suddenly he felt his body falling forward as his vision darkened.

**M3M04Y C044UP+10N # &57*!76*_9de3 UNC0V343D**

No, not now. Not in front of them. They couldn’t see him like this. Faintly, he could feel someone catching him and laying him down gently on the floor, yelling his name over and over. 

**V13W F1L3 ?**

He escaped that woman. She was gone, she couldn’t harm Gavin anymore. So why did he feel so scared of someone who wasn’t even within 10 miles of him? Why, why?

**Y /** **N**

Someone was shaking him now. The desperate cries of his friends were growing fainter and fainter each second, and their touch with it. He was slipping away. He didn’t want to, he tried to fight it. He clawed aimlessly for his freedom. He didn’t want to relive whatever hellish memory he was due for. He just wanted his friends back.

**_$Y$+3M 0V3441D3_**

  
  


He didn’t care if they would see him cry. He didn’t care about his pride anymore, damn it to hell if he had to.

**V13W1NG F1L3 1N**

Gavin was terrified. His friend’s shouts for him were completely gone and his sense of touch was as well as he floated in a black void, with only the taunting red countdown to assure him he wasn’t dead.

**3…**

He wished he was ~~d34d~~.

**2…**

~~D34th~~ was a much kinder punishment than what he was about to experience.

**1…**

He scr3amed in agony as the vo!d around him 3rupted in a blinding whi+e, sh0cking his systems into subm!ssion so he w0uld enter the memory with no ha$sle. It felt as if he was b3ing inciner4t3d.

He cri3d out for **~~N1nes~~**. F0r **~~T1na~~** , **~~C0nnor~~** , **~~H4nk~~** , any0ne to $ave him from +h3 indescrib4ble p4in he fel+ lurch 4cr0s$ h1s b0dy.

N **0** **0** n **3** c **4** m **3**.

**3v3ry+h1ng w3n+ d4rk 4g41n**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahahahahaha pain is all i know  
> also, did anyone have problems viewing last chapter?? ig i just didnt get a lot of comments like i usually do, though that could be due to the tw, so actually nvm  
> everyone have a splendid day!!!


	17. Announcement (dw it's a good one)

Hello, its the author, Bee!

I just wanted to let you all know who enjoy my works or my writing that I have released a new series on February 22nd !!! I am so excited because I've been working on it for awhile now alongside this book and I literally was so excited get it out there and published for you all to read!

If you want to be notified on stuff like this, you should totally subscribe to my page to get notifications on when new works and series are created and published!!!

The work itself is surprisingly is _not_ a Detroit: Become Human or Reed900 fic, rather, its fandom is actually the DreamSMP!!

NOW HOLD ON I CAN HEAR THE SIGHS ALREADY! Let me explain a few things:

1\. The work is **not** a ship book

2\. I am not a Dream stan 

3\. It's not about the Dream Team

I really, really worked hard on this and I'm actually fairly proud with its product because I've learned and grown from my time here writing for DBH and getting feedback from all of you over the past 5 or so months. So if you have any free time or are curious, the work is on my Dashboard and linked here: 

_['It's Always the Dead Who Harbor the Most Grudges'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29538294/chapters/72583116)_ underneath the series _Revival of the Vengeful._

You don't even have to be a fan of the SMP to enjoy it, though you might be a tad bit lost on a few things that are brought up. And if you aren't a fan of the DreamSMP, but know a friend or family member who is, send the fic their way!! I bet they'll get a kick out of it!

I will now be giving two official excerpts that I'm very proud of, one being the actual book's description, and the other being an excerpt from the first chapter; just in case you need a final push to be truly curious in reading it!

 **~~//////~~ ** ~~~~

Description

_When Wilbur and Schlatt are resurrected on the DreamSMP, most are happy to have the charming ex-President back; less are enthused about the drunk tyrant coming in tow._

_The same can't be said for Wilbur, who's been biding his time in the afterlife._

_Watching._

_Seething._

_Raging._

_His symphony may have finished, but there's an encore calling his name._

_And it's permeated with bloody vengeance._

_///_

_Schlatt thought he didn't care about his traitorous right-hand._

_Afterlife changes perspectives._

_Watching a teenager try to run a country and handle the peer pressure of his former Vice President? Exile his best friend under orders of a puppeteer? Watch and hear said puppeteer proudly say they would murder the teen in cold blood, just so the 'life' of the server stayed in their control? Accepting his fate without question, without argument?_

_Maybe Schlatt wasn't so heartless;_

_Because his chest burned hotter than any whiskey or cigarette ever made him feel._

_He burned with ungodly fury._

**~~//////~~ ** ~~~~

An Excerpt

_It was like she was calling to him. Death, that was. Her and Wilbur tended to always brush against each other, teasing the idea of finally taking each other by the hand to waltz into the great unknown that was whatever came after death. This time, however, Wilbur wasn’t shy and met the eyes of his fate directly, eyes he had avoided cowardly because he hadn’t yet understood the true allure that she had to offer: and that allure was the rhapsodic feeling of nothingness. No more melancholy. No more envy or resentment or feeling starved for affection. No more anything as he eagerly awaited his long overdue date with Death. He could match her in stride and steps and tempo, no matter how painlessly fast or agonizingly slow she decided to take him._

_He was ready to waltz._

**~~//////~~ **

I hope those two small details in an already 10,000 word long _first chapter_ are enough to really get you guys hyped!!

I hope to see some of you guys there! Have a great day and don't forget to hydrate!


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